Former schoolmates say the North Korean leader was funny and popular as a teenager in Bern, though a former bodyguard of his father describes a stressed, isolated child who was prone to outbursts.
Former classmates of Kim Jong Un say he was a “popular, fun loving” boy who was obsessed with basketball. He attended a German-speaking school in Switzerland, where his true identity was kept secret. Staff and pupils knew him as Pak Un and were told only that he was the child of a North Korean embassy worker. The recollections resurfaced days after he made a surprise trip to China, which followed unverified rumours that he had died.
What classmates remember
Joao Micaelo, a friend from the playground, said: “We had a lot of fun together. He was a good guy. Lots of kids liked him. I don’t know anything about his life today. All I know is the guy I knew in school. He loved basketball. We played a lot together. I’d like to say to him, if you ever have the time, please contact me again so we can catch up.”
Marco Imhof described the young Kim as “funny and good for a laugh”. He also said Kim was competitive, “hated to lose and found winning things to be very important”. Other students agreed he had a good sense of humour, but said pupils did not discuss politics in class, so they had little sense of his beliefs.
According to the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, which interviewed former classmates in 2010, Kim played the North Korean national anthem repeatedly on a portable MiniDisc player. Mr Micaelo recalled hearing it an extraordinary number of times. The paper also reports that he showed friends photographs of holidays in North Korea, including jet-skiing and beach trips, and had an interest in drawing and mathematics. Dong-A Ilbo reported in 2011 that he liked Jackie Chan films, wore Nike tracksuits and Air Jordan shoes, and avoided alcohol at teenage parties.
A different picture
Not everyone remembers him so warmly. Lee Young-guk, a former bodyguard of Kim’s father, told ABC News the boy “was stressed and had no one to play with his own age”. That, he said, made him “explosive” and “prone to acting without considering the consequences when he got angry”.
The source also carries a quote that describes him as quick-tempered: “He was quick-tempered. He doesn’t care about what others think. He doesn’t feel sorry for other people. He does whatever he wants. He would yell at the ladies. He was like that.” It does not clearly say who said it.
Teachers’ accounts differ too, according to Yonhap and the Korea Times. His former mathematics teacher, Peter Burri, remembered him as an enthusiastic and capable pupil who did satisfactorily in English and German. His class teacher, Simone Kuhn, described him as unusually quiet and hard to know. The Korea Times reported that he struggled with natural sciences and got barely passing grades in several subjects. These are separate witnesses, and they should not be merged into a single assessment.
His years in Switzerland
Yonhap’s examination of school records shows Kim was in Switzerland from 1996 to 2000. He first attended the International School of Berne, then moved in August 1998 to the German-speaking Liebefeld-Steinholzli public school. He needed extra German lessons at a nearby primary school after the move. He left in 2000, in ninth grade, without finishing his secondary education there.
His maternal aunt, Ko Yong-suk, was his guardian in Bern, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily and a 2016 Washington Post interview. She recalled encouraging him to bring friends home, where they ate cake and played with Lego. His mother reportedly encouraged basketball in the hope it would make him taller, and his aunt said he sometimes fell asleep holding a ball. She and her husband defected to the United States in 1998, when he was about 14, and later ran a dry-cleaning business there. She recalled that he had a short temper as a child and would refuse food in protest when his mother complained about gaming or poor study. She also claimed he was told he would lead North Korea at his eighth birthday, when he was given a general’s uniform and senior officers bowed. These are the recollections of a relative, and they are not independently documented.
The China trip and death rumours
South Korea’s government confirmed on Saturday that Kim was in China, in the border city of Dandong, where he reportedly arrived after crossing a newly opened bridge. North Korean state media confirmed the visit on Sunday 25 October. According to Yonhap, he met Wang Huning, a senior Chinese Communist Party official, who conveyed greetings from President Xi Jinping. Kim did not meet Mr Xi. He also attended a banquet, toured a vehicle factory and visited a Korean War memorial. His sister Kim Yo-jong and Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui went with him. It was his first visit to China in a year.
Kim crossed the New Yalu River Bridge, about three kilometres long, which opened on 15 October after years of delay. Rumours of his death began in part with an unsupported post by the US-based Chinese dissident Xie Wanjun, who claimed Kim had suffered a brain haemorrhage. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers on 23 October it had no evidence for the claims. North Korea had shown him at an exhibition in Pyongyang on 19 October. There is no verified evidence that he was ill or died.
