The route I used to escape is now closed – but new technology makes it increasingly hard to keep the population under control
- Timothy Cho campaigns for religious freedom in North Korea with the charity Open Doors
When I was a kid, I had a friend who was a smuggler. “You tell anyone about this – our lives are over,” he threatened, and suddenly grinned, delightedly revealing his prize: the latest 007 movie, Die Another Day.
Two decades ago, viewing foreign material in North Korea was highly dangerous – and it is the same today. The news that a two-year-old toddler has been sentenced to life imprisonment – because his parents were caught with a Bible – does not surprise anyone who observes the state’s cruelty to those who prefer not to worship the Kim family.
