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[Korea Quiz] Kim Jong-un's past

March 22, 2023 - 14:53 By Yoon Min-sik

Find the answer at the bottom of the page.

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is the leader of the most reclusive country in the world, but it has not always been that way.

The youngest son of late Kim Jong-il, the former leader of the totalitarian communist state, he attended the Liebefeld Steinholzli school near Bern, Switzerland in the late 1990s. No one at the time knew that he was a son of the North Korean dictator, as he was disguised as a son of an employee at the North Korean embassy.

His childhood friends have testified that he was a huge basketball fan, validated by his repeated invitations to and friendship with former NBA star Dennis Rodman. Kim’s first choice, however, was another Chicago Bull, Michael Jordan, as Rodman said he was asked only after Jordan had declined Kim’s invitation.

Besides being a sports fan, Kim has also shown his ruthless sides as the dictator of the hermit kingdom. In 2013, two years after he assumed power following the death of his father, he ordered the execution of his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, and all of Jang's direct relatives for alleged treason.

Four years later, Kim’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, was assassinated via a nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. Although it has never been officially verified, it is widely believed that Kim Jong-un himself ordered the hit.

Answer: b)

Korea Quiz