Kim Jong-un is said to have studied for four years in the outskirts of Bern, Switzerland. He allegedly lived with his aunt who was posing as his mother at the time in Liebefeld, Switzerland.
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This claim has never been confirmed or denied by North Korean authorities but several media outlets have reported about it, including media company, Politico.
In 2019 they published an article adapted from the book The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un, whichwas written by Beijing bureau chief at Washington Post, Anna Fifield.
The asian boy who just left one day
According to Fifield, Kim attended a public German-speaking school and later a private international school using the fake name of ‘Pak Un’. His classmates remember him speaking English relatively well but also struggling with the Swiss-German accent.
Kim befriended a Portuguese class-mate, João Micaelo, who was 14-years-old at the time and who clearly remembers ‘the Asian boy in a tracksuit and Nike shoes’. He described Kim as being introverted, but decisive and capable of making his point.
Kim apparently was obsessed with basketball, Michael Jordan and the NBA, wearing brand-name tracksuits and basketball shorts. He enjoyed life in Europe, had no financial problems, visited Disneyland in Paris twice, and enjoyed luxury trips such as skiing in the Swiss Alps, seaside on the French riviera, and culinary trips to Italy, Politico reports.
Democratic influence
According to theNew York Post, one Kim's teachers said he was exposed to western values:
‘make no mistake, Kim’s overseas schooling gave him a good understanding of Western values — whether or not he cared.’
Although Kim, spent four years of his adolescence in Switzerland, one of the most democratic countries in the world, and learned about Martin Luther King, Jr.,Nelson Mandela, etc., this did not change his character.
According to Politico, Kim had told his friend João, about his real identity but he did not believe him, he also told him that his father had called him back home in North Korea, but it was not sure when or why, until one day he had just left.
João and other classmates did not see Kim again until a decade later when they identified the boy on the balcony in Pyongyang who presented as the heir and the ‘Grand Successor’ of North Korea.
Sources used:
-Politico: ‘Kim Jong Un’s undercover adolescent years in Switzerland
-New York Post: ‘Inside Kim Jong Un’s childhood living under a fake name in Switzerland’
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