Old friend talks about Kim Jong-un's time studying in Switzerland

Nearly 20 years have passed, but Joao Micaelo, a chef at a restaurant in the capital Bern, still remembers his old classmate from the German school Liebefeld-Steinholzli. Like many others who knew Kim Jong-un from 1998 to the end of 2000, Micaelo thinks that KimKim, who goes by the name "Pak Un", is the son of a North Korean embassy employee. One day, Kim revealed his true identity to Micaelo, but he thought his friend was joking.

"He's a good friend," Micaelo said toDaily Beast. "We have a lot of fun memories together. Many of his friends also like him. I don't know anything about his life now. All I know is that he is a guy I knew at school. He is passionate about basketball. We often play basketball together."

According to Micaelo, Kim Jong-un is a fan of the Chicago Bulls, has a large collection of sneakers and, despite being only about 1.67 meters tall and quite heavy, is still very good at basketball.

“He was very cheerful, always making people laugh,” recalls Marco Imhof, another former classmate. “He also hated losing. Winning was very important.”

"He had a good sense of humor and was friendly with everyone, even with students from countries hostile to North Korea," another friend told the German newspaper.Welt am Sonntag."Politics is a taboo subject at school. We only discuss football, not politics."

A local education official confirmed toReutersthat there was a student named Pak Un, the son of a North Korean embassy employee, studying at Steinhoelzli school. The boy was described as "sociable, diligent and ambitious".

In addition to Kim Jong-un, his older brother Kim Jong-chul and younger sister Kim Yo-jong also studied in Switzerland from 1992 to 2000. His half-brother Kim Jong-nam studied in Moscow, Russia and then also went to Geneva, Switzerland.

Last year, Kim Jong-un's aunt Ko Yong Suk toldWashington Postthat she and her husband had been looking after her nephew and his brothers in Switzerland. Kim Jong Un moved to Switzerland in 1996, when he was 12 years old.

"We lived in a normal house and behaved like any other family. I was like their mother," Ko said. "I often asked Kim Jong Un to bring his friends home to play because I wanted them to have a normal life. I made snacks for the children. They ate cookies and played with Legos."

During the holidays, Mrs. Ko and her husband took their grandchildren skiing in the Alps, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea and traveling to Italy. In Bern, in addition to basketball, Kim Jong-un also enjoyed exploring machines.

"He was not a troublemaker, but he was hot-tempered and intolerant," Ko recalled. "When his mother told him not to play too much and to spend more time studying, he would not respond and would react in other ways, such as not eating."

Kim Jong-un suddenly disappeared in the middle of the 2000 school year and his friends never heard from him again. Kim returned to North Korea and succeeded his father, Kim Jong-il, after he died of a heart attack in 2011. Kim Jong-un is not believed to have returned to Switzerland since returning home, but his years studying abroad had a big impact on him.

In 2012, the Masikryong ski resort in Kangwon Province was built at an estimated cost of tens of millions of dollars, reportedly inspired by his time in Switzerland. He even attempted to import Swiss cable cars for the ski resort, but was hit by an international embargo.

The young leader is also said to have gifted Swiss watches to senior officials. A South Korean newspaper reported that in 2013 he set aside a large area of ​​land in Kangwon Province to turn it into pastures and alpine farms.