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***This programme contains references to imprisonment, abuse, child abandonment, and references to violence which some listeners may find upsetting. *** Since the 1950s, North Korea has been an authoritarian, isolationist state, and in practice there is no freedom of religion. Timothy Cho and his schoolteacher parents had learned to distrust and even fear Christianity. But the faith was going to play a significant role in Timothy’s life. At the age of nine, Timothy returned from school, to find that his parents had fled the country, leaving him behind. So, at the age of 17, he decided to follow them, only to be captured by Chinese soldiers when he crossed the border and returned to prison in North Korea. Timothy made his second attempt at escape in the same year, and this time he was successful, arriving in the city of Shanghai with a group of other North Korean refugees. The group broke into the American school in Shanghai, thinking they would get asylum that way, but the school handed them over to the Chinese police. Back in prison, feeling hopeless and fearful, Timothy met a South Korean gangster, who taught him how to pray. Timothy made a deal with God, that if God gave him his freedom, he would dedicate his life to his faith. Mike Wooldridge hears the story of Timothy’s escape, how he made his way to England, eventually finding work with the British government. And how he has kept his side of the deal, fighting for human rights in his home country, with Christianity playing a key role in his life. Mike asks if Timothy believes he did the right thing, making his deal with God back in his prison cell in Shanghai.