New stories emerge from North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s Swiss school days
FORMER classmates schooled alongside North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un in Switzerland cannot reconcile the unhinged dictator with the funny, popular boy they used to know.
As a young teen Kim was nothing like the ruthless, relative-executing despot the world has come to fear, according to his old mates at the German-speaking Liebefeld-Steinhölzli public school in Koeniz, south of Bern.
Instead, they remember a popular, slightly overweight boy with a collection of Nike trainers to die for.
Despite his weight and short stature (he was around 170cm tall), he loved — and was good at — basketball, with a passion for the Chicago Bulls.
“He was a good friend,” Bern chef Joao Micaelo, who attended Liebefeld-Steinhölzli with Kim for two years, told The Daily Beast.
“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.”
Like everybody else at the school, Mr Micaelo was introduced to Kim as “Pak Un” and told he was the son of North Korean embassy official. He said one day Kim told him who he really was, but he dismissed the story as fantasy.
Another childhood friend, Marco Imhof, remembered Kim as competitive but good-natured.
“He was funny,” Mr Imhof who is also based in Bern, told the Beast. “(He was) always good for a laugh. He also hated to lose. Winning was very important.”
Kim’s wit appears to have been one of his most beloved attributes.
“He had a sense of humour and got on well with everyone, even those pupils who came from countries who were enemies of North Korea,” an unnamed former classmate told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
“Politics were a taboo subject at school. We argued about (soccer) football, not politics.”
Kim, his older brother, Kim Jong Chul, and younger sister Kim Yo Jong studied in Swiss schools in and around Bern between 1992 and 2000.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/wor...s/news-story/4d49237a5dbe99d421bb8ec7ae60974c
FORMER classmates schooled alongside North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un in Switzerland cannot reconcile the unhinged dictator with the funny, popular boy they used to know.
As a young teen Kim was nothing like the ruthless, relative-executing despot the world has come to fear, according to his old mates at the German-speaking Liebefeld-Steinhölzli public school in Koeniz, south of Bern.
Instead, they remember a popular, slightly overweight boy with a collection of Nike trainers to die for.
Despite his weight and short stature (he was around 170cm tall), he loved — and was good at — basketball, with a passion for the Chicago Bulls.
“He was a good friend,” Bern chef Joao Micaelo, who attended Liebefeld-Steinhölzli with Kim for two years, told The Daily Beast.
“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.”
Like everybody else at the school, Mr Micaelo was introduced to Kim as “Pak Un” and told he was the son of North Korean embassy official. He said one day Kim told him who he really was, but he dismissed the story as fantasy.
Another childhood friend, Marco Imhof, remembered Kim as competitive but good-natured.
“He was funny,” Mr Imhof who is also based in Bern, told the Beast. “(He was) always good for a laugh. He also hated to lose. Winning was very important.”
Kim’s wit appears to have been one of his most beloved attributes.
“He had a sense of humour and got on well with everyone, even those pupils who came from countries who were enemies of North Korea,” an unnamed former classmate told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
“Politics were a taboo subject at school. We argued about (soccer) football, not politics.”
Kim, his older brother, Kim Jong Chul, and younger sister Kim Yo Jong studied in Swiss schools in and around Bern between 1992 and 2000.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/wor...s/news-story/4d49237a5dbe99d421bb8ec7ae60974c
