But one election leaflet in Stockport has been raising eyebrows the last few weeks. It simply reads: \u2018From North Korea to Heatons North\u2019.<\/p>\n
Click here<\/a> to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter<\/strong><\/p>\n The man behind the leaflet is Timothy Cho, who escaped from North Korea twice and eventually moved to this corner of the world.<\/p>\n Timothy offered to share his story ahead of the local election next week.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t give his exact age, but says he is around 37.<\/p>\n He\u2019s standing as the Conservative Party<\/a> candidate in the Heatons North ward, a suburb north of Stockport town centre.<\/p>\n Timothy was born in the northernmost part of North Korea in a province called Hamgyong.<\/p>\n He grew up in the town of Onsung, which is about a 20-minute walk from the border with China.<\/p>\n North Korea is ruled by Kim Jong Un.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were very deeply brainwashed from the time we started to walk,\u201d Timothy explains.<\/p>\n \u201cEven at nursery, before we ate we were giving thanks to the Kim family for giving us food.<\/p>\n \u201cWe regarded him as our God. When the first Kim died, I was seven, and I cried terribly. I thought God had died.\u201d<\/p>\n Timothy spoke about the reality of life in North Korea(Image: Timothy Cho)<\/p>\n Timothy\u2019s parents were both teachers. He explains that his father taught history, and in North Korea teachers hold a high status in society.<\/p>\n This was partly because it was thought teachers in North Korea have a key role to play in \u2018brainwashing\u2019 children, Timothy said.<\/p>\n During childhood, Timothy had \u2018no idea what outside North Korea\u2019 looked like, as his family and others dealt with regular power blackouts due to a lack of energy in the country.<\/p>\n Timothy said: \u201cThere were no phones, no internet, no social media, we never had the opportunity to learn about the outside.<\/p>\n \u201cInformation is completely blocked.\u201d<\/p>\n He recalls the brutality of growing up in North Korea, when he said violence and death was common.<\/p>\n One memory he shares was of public executions.<\/p>\n These were used to frighten people into not daring to disobey the regime, or make any attempts to leave the country.<\/p>\n Timothy explains how people who had gone against these rules were killed publicly, with children gathered to watch.<\/p>\n One of the key moments in Timothy\u2019s life came when he was just ten-years-old.<\/p>\n It seemed a day like any other, starting with the journey to school. But when he came home his parents were gone.<\/p>\n \u201cOne day I came home from school. I opened the door, and I could feel it: they were gone,” Timothy said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t say anything because of course I was too young.<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t make that choice. My father, due to something with political persecution, meant we could have been taken to a prison camp. It was an urgent decision to leave home, they couldn\u2019t even tell me where to go.<\/p>\n \u201cI went back, the train was gone, and I sat there and cried and cried. I came home and cried all night.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the last times I saw my mother was waving on the train.<\/p>\n \u201cI lived with anger and hatred for many years until I learned how I was able to forgive my own parents.\u201d<\/p>\n From the age of ten, Timothy survived living on the streets in North Korea.<\/p>\n His childhood was living and sleeping outdoors, begging for food to survive. He could not attend school.<\/p>\n The fact that his parents had fled North Korea made him what is known as the \u2018enemy class\u2019, Timothy said.<\/p>\n In the eyes of the state, Timothy was the \u2018son of a traitor\u2019, and this would be a lifelong punishment.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the enemy class, you\u2019re being monitored constantly by the regime. All your opportunities are decided because of your status.\u201d<\/p>\n The next key moment in Timothy\u2019s journey came when he was aged 17.<\/p>\n At that time, Kim Jong Il was the then ruler of North Korea. It was the first time Timothy tried to escape.<\/p>\n Timothy said people in North Korea are ‘brainwashed’ from the moment they can walk(Image: AP Photo\/Jon Chol Jin)<\/p>\n When he was 17, Timothy tried to join the army. He thought this would offer a path to a better life.<\/p>\n But owing to being considered part of the \u2018enemy class\u2019, he was refused, and instead told he would be made to work jobs that no one else wanted.<\/p>\n This included working in coalmines, in the deepest and most dangerous locations, places where many go but never return.<\/p>\n It was at this moment that Timothy joined four strangers and made to leave North Korea.<\/p>\n \u201cWe walked along a river, and safely arrived in China,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was night time when we crossed the border because it was very dangerous.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw from miles away a spinning light. It was strange for me because North Korea doesn\u2019t have any light.<\/p>\n \u201cI told the group I was going to walk towards the light, and we split up from there.<\/p>\n \u201cI walked towards the light and when I arrived there it was a market, the first time I saw a market full of light.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course at Christmas<\/a> time in Stockport we see it on the street and decorations, but that market in China was the first time I had seen it.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople had different hair colours, it was the first time I saw you can do this, you would be executed for that in North Korea.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw people wearing jackets with English words written on them, jeans, jumpers – jeans are banned in North Korea, and you can\u2019t have a jacket there with any English words on it.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw people wearing jeans with holes, young people, and I thought wow. I could smell delicious food.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt dizzy standing there, it was my first picture of the outside. I was very shocked, we were told that North Korea is the best country in the world led by the Kim family, and we must stick with the Kim family.<\/p>\n \u201cSo at that market I started crying standing there.<\/p>\n \u201cI was thinking that this is not what I was told the world would be like.\u201d<\/p>\n After having survived the dangerous border crossing, Timothy was still far from safe.<\/p>\n He explained that many North Koreans who leave are caught and returned, facing the risk of brutal consequences, including torture and death.<\/p>\n He had no passport and couldn\u2019t speak any other languages at the time.<\/p>\n Timothy continued: \u201cI found someone who helped me get all the way to the border with Mongolia.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I arrived at the border, there were 17 other North Korean refugees who all came together.<\/p>\n \u201cWe tried to cross into Mongolia and we were all arrested by the Chinese military.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our group there were seven people who were a family – parents, children aged four and six, grandparents, and that family when it arrived in North Korea they ended up in a prison camp.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were arrested and sent to a military prison for a few weeks, and eventually sent back to North Korea, all 18 of us.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a place in North Korea where we were put, and it\u2019s a place I can only describe as similar to Auschwitz.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we arrived at the detention centre, there were underground prison cells, the first thing we did when we arrived was given numbers, we did not have names.<\/p>\n \u201cEach prison there could be hundreds of prisoners, full of inmates, in a tiny square space.\u201d<\/p>\n Timothy remembers having to sit upright leaning against other people in the cell to try and sleep.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThe first time I took a nap leaning against a mate behind me. I felt his body getting heavier and heavier.<\/p>\n \u201cI was going to tell him to lean against me less. When I turned my head around his body was falling. He died while he was leaning against me.<\/p>\n \u201cHis body was dragged out of the cell through the corridor. He was killed by torture, there was no medical treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cAt night you could hear people being tortured, begging and screaming to leave.<\/p>\n \u201cAny women who came back from China pregnant, their babies were killed.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a few days I was no longer able to sit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were not human beings there.\u201d<\/p>\n Timothy says he still lives with the physical scars today from his time in the detention centre.<\/p>\n But a \u2018miracle\u2019 happened when the authorities decided to let him stay with his grandmother in her house based in the town he grew up in.<\/p>\n Timothy couldn\u2019t walk from his experience in the detention centre, and he believes he was let go because he wouldn\u2019t have survived much longer in those conditions.<\/p>\n When he left, he said the authorities and police were \u2018constantly\u2019 watching over his every move.<\/p>\n It was at this moment that Timothy decided to leave North Korea again.<\/p>\n Without being able to walk, he tied together plastic containers and held it on the river to cross the border for the second time.<\/p>\n He said there were others making the journey too, including one woman who refused to let him die each time Timothy fell into the water from his makeshift raft.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot die here,\u201d she told him, helping him back on the plastic containers each time.<\/p>\n It took more than two hours for him to enter China.<\/p>\n Timothy said: \u201cWe knocked on one lady\u2019s door. But that area in China, people can report us to the police, they get ransoms if they do that.<\/p>\n \u201cThat lady saw we were soaked because we had crossed the river, and she knew we were from North Korea.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of asking us anything she said \u2018come in\u2019 and offered hot food and a mobile phone.<\/p>\n \u201cUp to this age in my life I have seen many miracles, all these miracles were done by men and women, and otherwise I wouldn\u2019t be here today.\u201d<\/p>\n Timothy also remembered a moment of kindness when the group of 18 were caught during his first time escaping North Korea.<\/p>\n When they had been caught and were being taken back to North Korea, a lady kept telling him: \u201cIf you ever survive, you must tell the world how we died.\u201d<\/p>\n The woman did not survive, Timothy said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is why I\u2019m telling you now, and I\u2019m constantly telling the story.\u201d<\/p>\n The second time Timothy arrived in China he went to Shanghai. From there, he found help to go to an international school in the city.<\/p>\n A group of nine scaled the fence, and asked for help. It caused a commotion, panic and tears spread among the children, and the Chinese police soon arrived. The group were taken to Shanghai international prison.<\/p>\n It was there that Timothy met a prisoner from South Korea who he could speak with, and for the first time, he learned about God, and prayed.<\/p>\n Then another miracle happened.<\/p>\n Timothy said: \u201cAfter several weeks, two men visited me in the prison. I thought I was going back to North Korea.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were two diplomats from South Korea, and one guy was a westerner.<\/p>\n \u201cThey said to me \u2018Timothy we have very surprising news for you. The Chinese government made a decision to deport you and the group to the Philippines with a diplomatic passport.\u2019<\/p>\n It transpired that a journalist in Japan got wind of what had happened to the group, and soon several news organisations and human rights groups were involved.<\/p>\n Pressure was put on China to release the group, Timothy said.<\/p>\n The diplomatic passport gave him the chance to travel to one country in the world – but it could only be used once.<\/p>\n Weighing up his options, Timothy had remembered the name of a country he had heard from his history teacher father – England.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cHe once told me about the industrial revolution, and when I looked on a map the UK was the other end of the world from Asia, and I wanted to go as far as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n He got on the plane, first to South Korea and then to London, where he arrived in 2008 to start his new life.<\/p>\n Timothy is hoping to be elected as a councillor in Stockport(Image: Adam Vaughan \/ MEN)<\/p>\n This took him from London up to Bolton<\/a>, where he started helping out at St Luke’s Parish Church on Chorley Old Road, supporting the homeless.<\/p>\n It was a mutually beneficial exchange, as Timothy said many local people and the homeless helped him to start learning English.<\/p>\n He continued his English studies at a college in Bolton, and went on to get a degree in politics from salford<\/a>-university>Salford University<\/a>, and a masters from Liverpool University.<\/p>\n Timothy now lives in Heaton Norris, Stockport, with his wife and two children, who are aged seven and three.<\/p>\n He works as the Secretariat for the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea, splitting his time between Stockport and London.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cFor 17 years I suffered a lot, I saw kids starve to death when I survived on the street, I tried to survive as much as I could, begging for food or at someone\u2019s vegetable farm.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw kids frozen to death, I couldn\u2019t go to school. I was grateful to my grandmother who took me in.<\/p>\n \u201cEach time I survived, it was miracles from men and women, and it was love.\u201d<\/p>\n What happened to Timothy\u2019s parents?<\/p>\n He explained: “Both my parents made it to South Korea. One day, I had a call.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mother couldn\u2019t speak, she was in a care home, the doctor told me she was going to die soon.<\/p>\n \u201cShe had a stroke. Her body was paralysed. The Doctor said, \u2018she has one question for you\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThe question was: \u2018do you forgive me?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cShe lived with her guilt for many years. She said what she regretted in her life was why she couldn\u2019t take me with her.<\/p>\n \u201cI told my mum I have already forgiven her, I don\u2019t hate her anymore, and that I arrived in England, learned English, went to the best universities in the world, she always me wanted to go to higher education.<\/p>\n \u201cI told her that I was also expecting to work in Parliament from 2018, because I applied for an internship after my masters in Liverpool.<\/p>\n \u201cI worked for Fiona Bruce, the MP for Congleton.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mum was crying and crying. She actually lived for two more weeks after that phone call, she was meant to die sooner.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was part of her forgiveness, she didn\u2019t want to die. I was able to attend her funeral in South Korea, it was beautiful.<\/p>\n \u201cI said goodbye to her. I still miss her.<\/p>\n \u201cI always wanted to have my mum\u2019s food again. That wish still remains.<\/p>\n \u201cOne day I will see her again in that beautiful place.\u201d<\/p>\n Timothy\u2019s father still lives in South Korea.<\/p>\n As for his election priorities, he explained that he is standing for community safety, parks and green spaces, and improvements to roads and pavements, among other issues.<\/p>\n On his life in the UK, Timothy said: \u201cThis country, the United Kingdom, has given me so much. It is my time to give it back to the community and the nation one way or another.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter whether people support me or not, I am still grateful.<\/p>\n \u201cTo become a political candidate would be just impossible in North Korea, such democratic elections don\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n \u201cNot just in North Korea but in many parts of the world.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is why I ask people, even if you don\u2019t vote for me, please use your vote, do not leave your choice in someone else\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is so important to protect and defend this freedom, it\u2019s easy to take it away, and once it is gone, it could take a while to bring it back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s local election season and that means a near endless amount of leaflets, promises, and door knocks as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2625,2465,1288,2622,16,15,185318],"class_list":{"0":"post-935997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-heaton-norris","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-stockport","14":"tag-stockport-council","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unmissable"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116513445318680412","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Timothy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_JS404746331.jpg\")
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