As a North Korean defector, Timothy Cho followed a path into British politics that was far from typical.

His parents fled the DPRK when he was a boy and left him an orphan whom the state branded a member of the hostile class. Repeated attempts to escape himself resulted in multiple stints in prison, where he says he witnessed shocking violations of human rights.

Those traumatic experiences of state cruelty deeply shaped his worldview and have only increased his faith in the democratic electoral process in his adopted home.

In an interview with NK News, Cho recounts the story