Kim Jong-un seemingly vanished from public view as the coronavirus gripped the world
in 2020, leaving reporters with the hard task of separating fact from fiction about his
health.
But that's always been the case for North Korea's mysterious Supreme Leader.
This is the untold truth of Kim Jong-un.
Little is known about Kim Jong-un's early childhood, even his date of birth is a mystery,
but it's been confirmed that he spent four years in Switzerland beginning in 1996.
Using the name Pak Un and posing as the child of North Korean diplomats, Kim attended an
international school in Bern, per Politico.
He joined his older brother, who was already studying there, and his maternal aunt and
uncle, who were pretending to be their parents.
The arrangement worked well up until Kim's mother was diagnosed with cancer.
With their connection to the regime under threat, Kim's aunt and uncle fled to the U.S.
Embassy and claimed asylum.
Speaking to journalist Anna Fifield from her home in America years later, Kim's aunt, Ko
Yong-suk, revealed what life was like looking after the Kim kids:
"We lived in a normal home and acted like a normal family.
I acted like their mother.
Their friends would come over, and I would make them snacks.
It was a very normal childhood with birthday parties and gifts and Swiss kids coming over
to play."
Not all the Swiss kids took a shining to Kim, however.
In fact, he was reportedly quite the outsider, with one former classmate claiming that he
would lash out when his peers conversed in Swiss German, which he struggled to understand.
According to Kim's ex-classmate,
"He kicked us in the shins and even spat at us."
According to Anna Fifield's book, The Great Successor, Kim Jong-un has always loved basketball
and would often get scolded for playing too much during his school days in Switzerland,
his mother was reportedly horrified when she discovered her son sleeping with his official
NBA ball every night.
Whenever Kim played, he would wear the same Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls jersey and a
pair of Air Jordans.
His love for Jordan was apparently passed down by his father, who once asked the U.S.
to send the NBA star to North Korea, according to ABC News.
Jordan never made it to North Korea, but years later Kim managed to get another Bulls legend
to accept an invitation to Pyongyang.
Dennis Rodman first visited the country for a basketball exhibition back in 2013, and
he struck up an unlikely friendship with the dictator.
Rodman told the Guardian at the time, "The Marshal Kim and I had a relaxing time
by the sea with his family.
He's a good dad and has a beautiful family."
"He's very strong, as a man.
Very strong."
The Hall of Famer even sang "Happy Birthday" to Kim when he returned the following year
in a bizarre moment that sums up this odd bromance.
Rodman defended his "friend for life" when he spoke to Business Insider in 2019, claiming
he still receives regular invites to North Korea but has been banned from traveling to
the country by the president.
He told the outlet,
"I can't go because Donald won't let me go."
In 2014, a report emerged suggesting that the Supreme Leader of North Korea had introduced
a new rule that made it mandatory for male university students to sport his hairstyle.
According to one source, who spoke to Radio Free Asia on the condition of anonymity, not
everybody was happy about having to adopt Kim's look:
"Our leader's haircut is very particular, if you will.
It doesn't always go with everyone since everyone has different face and head shapes."
The story got even bigger when a London salon used Kim's face on a poster with the words
"bad hair day" right next to him.
What the owner didn't realize was that the North Korean embassy was just a 10-minute
walk away.
The day after the advert went up, he was visited by two North Korean officials who wanted to
know why Kim's face was being used.
The manager reportedly told the men,
"Listen, this isn't North Korea, this is England.
We live in a democracy, so I'm afraid you're going to have to get out of my salon."
Kim Jong-un is thought to have married his wife, Ri Sol-ju, in either 2009 or 2010.
According to sources cited by the Telegraph, the nuptials reportedly took place not long
after his father suffered a stroke, with the regime keen to ensure that the Kim dynasty
endured.
Ri, who comes from an elite North Korean family, was reportedly part of her country's Olympic
cheerleading team during her early twenties and went on to perform in concerts overseas.
She was a member of a state orchestra, whose members are, quote, "handpicked by the state
based on their talent, looks and loyalty to the regime," per the Straits Times.
Ri was given the title of "respected First Lady" ahead of her first solo public appearance
in 2018, having previously been referred to as simply "madam" or "comrade" in North Korean
state media.
Like Kim, her date of birth is a mystery, but we all know that she has at least one
child by the dictator: Kim's BFF, Dennis Rodman, revealed that he, quote, "held their baby
Ju-ae and spoke with Ms Ri as well" when he spoke to the Guardian back in 2013.
The couple are thought to have three kids in total.
In 2013, China's Shenzhen TV ran a story about Kim Jong-un that had its neighbor and ally
up in arms.
Per Business Insider, a North Korean official reportedly confirmed to the station that the
Supreme Leader had undergone six separate plastic surgery procedures in an effort to,
quote, "look more like his grandfather, Kim Il-sung."
Known as "the eternal president" in North Korea, Kim Il-sung founded the country and
has retained a godlike status.
China's state news agency was quick to denounce the story, but it was still picked up by numerous
South Korean outlets, which didn't go down very well north of the border.
In fact, North Korea was absolutely furious.
North Korea's propaganda agency KCNA said,
"The false report released by enemies is a hideous criminal act which the party, state,
army and people can never tolerate.
Those hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the nation should not expect any mercy
or leniency.
Time will clearly show what dear price the human scum and media in the service of traitors
of South Korea, slaves of capital, will have to pay."
The rumors persisted, of course, but is there any truth to them?
According to North Korean defector Kim Yoo-sung, there could well be.
He wrote in Ask A North Korean,
"It is thought that top elites in North Korea can get high-quality plastic surgery."
One of wackiest things about North Korea is that the people are reportedly led to believe
that the Kim family does not need to use the bathroom.
Ever.
Defector and concentration camp survivor Kang Chol-Hwan wrote in his memoir,
"[They] were perfect beings, untarnished by any base human function.
I was convinced, as we all were, that neither of them urinated or defecated.
Who could imagine such things of gods?"
The truth, of course, is that Kim Jong-un is just a man, so how does he perpetuate this
clear and obvious lie?
Well, he travels with a mobile toilet.
Sources claimed to Daily NK that when Kim travels around his country by convoy, one
of those cars is actually a lavatory on wheels.
One insider said that it would be "unthinkable" for the Supreme Leader to have to use a public
restroom.
The dictator also reportedly packs a portable toilet when he travels overseas.
In 2015, South Korean television network YTN came into possession of a North Korean teacher's
manual that had been distributed to schools across the totalitarian country.
The text, intended as a guide to a newly introduced class called Kim Jong Un's Revolutionary Activities,
was packed with outrageous claims about the Supreme Leader's childhood.
According to UPI, the booklet stated that Kim was a skilled artist and composer of classical
music.
This could well be true, but we're pretty sure he wasn't driving by age 3.
North Korean children are apparently being taught that Kim was a child prodigy who could
handle a vehicle as a toddler.
It's not the only amazing thing he could reportedly do at three years old, either: according to
the Guardian, state propagandists have claimed that little Kim could shoot a light bulb from
100 meters away by that age.
By eight, he was apparently able to drive a truck at 80 mph, and as a nine-year-old,
he supposedly, quote, "raced the chief executive of a foreign yacht company", and beat him.
Kim Jong-un has reportedly executed numerous people since he came to power, family members
included.
In 2014, a state-backed Chinese newspaper claimed that Kim killed his own uncle in horrific
fashion.
The report alleged that Jang Song-thaek was "stripped naked" and thrown to a pack of 120
starving dogs, along with at least five people from his inner circle.
Hundreds of officials are said to have witnessed the gruesome spectacle.
"It is really hard to exaggerate the extent of the police state in North Korea."
If reports are to be believed, Kim is a big fan of utilizing animals in his executions,
and he's apparently upped his game considerably in recent years.
In 2019, the Daily Star claimed that the North Korean leader had ordered the construction
of a huge piranha tank in his residence, reportedly based on the one used by Bond villain Karl
Stromberg in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me.
According to the British newspaper, he tossed one of his generals to the imported flesh-eating
fish after he suspected him of planning a coup.
Kim Jong-un's half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, was once set to take over from Kim Jong-il
before he fell out of favor with his father and left Pyongyang for Macau, where he lived
in exile.
On February 13, 2017, Jong-nam was due to fly into Macau from Kuala Lumpur, but he would
never leave the Malaysian airport.
As he waited for his flight, a woman rubbed an "oily substance" on his face without warning,
per the Guardian.
When she vanished, a second woman approached from behind and briefly covered his eyes and
mouth with her hands.
He died 20 minutes later.
It turned out he had been poisoned with a potent nerve agent named VX, though the two
women who administered it claimed they had no idea what it was.
The killers, who were two former escorts, one from Indonesia, the other from Vietnam,
told Malaysian police that they'd been duped by North Korean agents and believed they were
taking part in a prank for a Japanese YouTube channel.
The charges against one were dropped, while the other spent just a few years behind bars.
According to a former member of South Korea's Intelligence agency, the Malaysian authorities
were simply more interested in maintaining diplomatic ties than seeking justice.
Rumors that Kim Jong-un was gravely ill following a botched heart surgery began to spread like
wildfire when he missed a celebration event marking his beloved grandfather's birthday
in April 2020.
Some reports suggested that he had been left in a vegetative state, while others claimed
he was actually already dead, a doctored image of him lying in this state went viral, adding
to the confusion.
The story began when a website ran by North Korean defectors claimed that the Supreme
Leader's cardiovascular issues had been worsening.
There's no concrete proof of this, but if Kim is in good health, then why has he gone
AWOL?
Kim has a history of temporarily vanishing for health reasons.
He was absent for 40 days in 2014 as he reportedly suffered from gout, but he's never missed
his grandfather's celebration day before.
Add in the fact that China previously sent a team of medical experts to North Korea,
and it seemed pretty clear that he was in trouble, right?
Not necessarily.
As of the making of this video, the South Korean government claims to know exactly where
Kim is, telling Reuters that he is likely in isolation amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The unification minister claimed,
"It is true that he had never missed [the anniversary] since he took power, but many
anniversary events including celebrations and a banquet had been [canceled] because
of coronavirus concerns.
I don't think that's particularly unusual given the current situation."
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