Riesen said he often walked to school from the unassuming home he lived in with his aunt and other family members not far from the North Korean embassy. To find out more about what the young North Korean learned in school, I took the bus to Koniz one day and visited the municipality office. Kenji Fujimoto, Kim Jong-ils former sushi chef, who visited Pyongyang at the request of Kim Jong-un, has provided some of the most fascinating firsthand observations about Jong-un and his relationship with his father. There was a spare seat next to Joao, so the new boy, who simply went by the name of Un, sat in it. Kim was shipped to Switzerland where an older brother had already gone to study around age 12 in 1996 during the devastating North Korean famine that killed up to 3 million people. Kim Jong-un has already tested nearly three times more missiles than his father and grandfather combined. David Guttenfelder/National Geographic Creative. He is comfortable with technology in the form of cell phones and laptops, and is also portrayed speaking earnestly with nuclear scientists and overseeing scores of missiletests. Another reveals some fuzz on his top lip and a smattering of pimples on his cheek. Copyright 2019 by Anna Fifield. They enjoyed living in Europe and having money. His friend and classmate in Switzerland said of Kim: We werent the dimmest kids in the class but neither were we the cleverest. One of his key points was that we tend to perceive what we expect to perceive, and that patterns of expectations tell analysts, subconsciously, what to look for, what is important, and how to interpret what is seen. The analysts established mindset predisposes her to think in certain ways and affects the way she incorporates newinformation. It wasnt his first time abroadhe had traveled to Europe and Japan beforebut it was the first time he had lived outside the confines of the North Korean royal court. Until 2001, it was assumed that Kim Jong-il's eventual heir would be his eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, whose mother was Song Hye-rim.But in May 2001, Kim Jong-nam was arrested at Narita . Kitante Primary School Address 8HMM+H4H, Nakayima Road, Kampala, Uganda View Map Phone Number +256 414-342218 Working hours Sunday: closed See All E-mail Send Enquiry Share this listing 0 Reviews This company has no reviews. Kim has made it clear that he will not tolerate any potential challengers. Micaelo said Kim once confessed that he was the son of the leader of North Korea. The analyst has to be comfortable with ambiguity and contradictions, constantly training her mind to question assumptions, consider alternative hypotheses and scenarios, and make the call in the absence of sufficient information, often in high-stakes situations. Everyone knew that Kim had heart issueshe had suffered a stroke in 2008and that the day would probably come when his familys history of heart disease and his smoking, drinking, and partying would catch up with him. The young Kim and his classmates at the military universitythe future military eliteno doubt celebrated that nuclear milestone, which probably also fortified their optimism about their countrys nuclear future and reinforced their belief in their role as the defenders of thatfuture. North Koreas army of cyberdisruptorsoperating abroad in China, Southeast Asia, and other placescontinues to expand itscapabilities. North Korea is what we at the CIA called the hardest of the hard targets. A former CIA analyst once said that trying to understand North Korea is like working on a jigsaw puzzle when you have a mere handful of pieces and your opponent is purposely throwing pieces from other puzzles into the box. The North Korean regimes opaqueness, self-imposed isolation, robust counterintelligence practices, and culture of fear and paranoia provided at best fragmentaryinformation. weight around and kill and torture close friends and relatives. Tuition cost more than $20,000 a year. When he first enrolled at the school in Liebefeld, Kim Jong Un started in a reception class for children who did not speak German, spending several months learning his lessons in German but at a slower pace with simpler instruction. Kim is however harnessing the nostalgia for his grandfathers era, before the 1990s famine and the collapse of the Soviet Union and the resulting termination of aid. For the past six years, Kim has poked and prodded, testing and pushing the boundaries of international tolerance for his actions, calculating that he can handle whatever punishment is meted out. Despite his apparent lack of seriousness, Jong-un seems to have known from early on that, as his fathers chosen successor, he was destined to lead. If we unpack this comparison, we can envision how deeply Kim Jong-un might have been affected by the death of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. They know the education is fake, the mythology of the Kim family is fake. For the toiling masses as well as for the elite, Ri, the glamorous and devoted wife, is an aspirationalfigure. In October 2006, when Kim Jong-un was in his early twenties and two months away from his graduation from Kim Il-Sung Military University (which he had reportedly attended since 2002), North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, providing the Kim dynasty with yet another layer of protection, further steeping the nation in the Kim family mythology of supreme power, and further warping the young Jong-uns sense of reality and expectations. Some North Korean experts say there is a strategic reason that Kim looks so plump. She was thrilled to see her son taking to basketball, a sport that she believed would help him clear his mind and loosen his childhood obsession with planes and engines. She arrived on a passport that declared her to be Chong Il Son, assigned to the North Korean mission at the United Nations in Geneva since 1987, but the Swiss knew exactly who she was. Google. For example, in 2014, the regime said that the release of the movie The Interviewa comedy depicting an assassination attempt against Kimwould constitute an act of war; North Korean hackers threatened 9/11-type attacks against theaters that showed thefilm. Only their oldest, who was then 14, the same age as Kim Jong Un, knew what was going to happen next. As Mark Bowden wrote in a 2015 VanityFair profile, At age five, we are all the center of the universe. Under Kim Jong-un, the collapse of North Korea seemed more likely thanever. North Korea was poor and backward, isolated, unable to feed its people, while clinging to its nuclear and missile programs for legitimacy and prestige. He was much more interested in football and basketball thanlessons.. Marisa Vifian, head of the Koniz education department, pulled out a big white binder containing the school curriculum from the 1990s. His ball was also top of the line: a Spalding with the official mark of the NBA. By portraying Kim Jong-un as a hands-on leader who personally ordered the rocket launch from a satellite command center, the state media framed their new leader as bold and action-oriented even in the face of widespread international censure. When I happen to glance at the purple book, I am reminded about how humility is inherent in intelligence analysisespecially in studying a target like North Koreasince it forces me to confront my doubts, remind myself about how I know what I know and what I dont know, confront my confidence level in my assessments, and evaluate how those unknowns might change myperspective. Instead, he made a new start at the German-speaking public school in his neighborhood, Schule Liebefeld Steinholzli. He reportedly turned up alive Friday after weeks of speculation that he was dead or comatose. One unit was even called Happiness, Suffering, Life and Death. Students learned about Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma Gandhi. While lessons were in High German, the more formal variety of the language spoken in official situations in Switzerland, families and friends spoke to each other in Swiss German, former classmates recalled. Would the elites accept Kim? For Kim, skiing in the Swiss Alps and swimming in the French Riviera must have seemed part of his birthright. This 24.3% pass rate makes Kitante Primary School rank position 1736 in Uganda among all the Primary Schools. Top-of-the-line personal computers used floppy disks and ran on MS-DOS. That nuclear test, and his grandfathers and fathers commitment to nuclear weapons, would also, however, narrow his choices once he took power, boxing him into the conviction that the fate of the nation and its 25 million people rested on his carrying forward this legacy. The U.S. must work to minimize the threat of North Koreas nuclear weapons program without fueling conditions that could invite unintended escalation leading to armed conflict. Even as tension with the United States went into overdrive after a sixth nuclear test and the launch of numerous ballistic missiles during the summer and fall of 2017, state media showed Kim and his wife touring a North Korean cosmetics factory. Kim Jong-chul was born in 1981. They monitored Ko Yong Hui closely, keeping records of everything from her shopping expeditions on Zurichs Bahnhofstrasse, one of the worlds most exclusive shopping avenues, to her hospital bills at fancy private clinics on Lake Geneva. Their friends would come over, and I would make them snacks. It was presented to us during our initial education as new CIA officers and often referred to in subsequent training. And if Kim Jong-un were to hold onto his position, what would happen to his country? Kims competitive side came out on the basketball court. But Kim Jong-il reportedly rejected Jong-nam as being unfit to lead North Korea. Another photo taken around this time shows Kim with a smile, wearing a silver necklace over his black T-shirt and looking like a typical teenager. What, then, are the expectations and perceptions that we need to overcome to form an accurate assessment of Kim Jong-un and his regime? From the book THE GREAT SUCCESSOR by Anna Fifield. Source: Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS). Kim is 57 and his grandfather, who founded the country in 1948 and ruled to 1994, was 510, very tall for a North Korean. Why? Joao remembers Un as quiet but said that he was very decisive and capable of making his point. Just two weeks after North Korean negotiators agreed to the 2012 Leap Day deal with the U.S., which called for a moratorium on Pyongyangs nuclear and ballistic missile tests in exchange for food aid, the new Kim regime announced its intention to conduct a space launch, using the same ballistic missile technology banned by sanctions. In North Korea, jeans are a symbol of the despised capitalists. Kim studied abroad and spent family vacations skiing in the French Alps, going to EuroDisney in Paris, and swimming on the French Riviera, but this international experience didnt translate into political enlightenment or empathy for his countrymen at home when he took over after his fathers death. He had been to Paris to see an NBA exhibition game and had photos of himself standing with Toni Kukoc of the Chicago Bulls and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers. 10 Kirchstrasse. This story has been shared 120,685 times. Its in a three-story, light-orange sandstone building surrounded by hydrangeas. Our analysis and policy responses must also change and evolve and be prepared for all potential scenarios. Hajarah Nalwadda/AP Photo "Inevitably, we have to open up schools . He didnt go to school camp, parties, or discos, and he didnt touch a drop of alcohol. Just a few months after he became the leader of North Korea, on the 100th anniversary of his grandfathers birth, Kim delivered his first public address. His childhood was marked by luxury and leisure: vast estates with horses, swimming pools, bowling alleys, summers at the familys private resort, luxury vehicles adapted so that he could drive when he was 7 years old. The August that Kim Jong Un arrived in Switzerland, Mission Impossible was in theaters, and Trainspotting was about to open. The few friends who went to his apartment loved watching his action films, especially those featuring Jackie Chan or the latest James Bond. Still, the death wasjarring. You need to pass an array of types. With his uncanny likeness to his grandfather in both appearance and demeanor, he has skillfully exploited the countrys adulation of its founder. First name Surname Country School Prize; Veda: Fernandes: UAE: Jumeirah Primary School: 1st: Martha Tendo: Nakirandha: Uganda: Kitante Primary School: 2nd: Aryav: Odhrani Kim Jong Un was still very much a child when he departed for Bern, the capital of Switzerland, in the summer of 1996 to join his older brother Kim Jong Chol at school. Ko, in keeping with Korean practice whereby women keep their surnames after marriage, had paperwork naming her as Chong Yong Hye. The overthrow of regimes hitherto believed to be invincible probably highlighted for Jong-un the potential consequences of showing any signs of weakness, and reinforced the brutal suppression of dissent practiced by the Kimdynasty. He was left in the care of an aunt who posed as his mother and later defected to the US, where she ran a dry cleaners in Manhattan. In a coincidence that would play out later, van Damme co-starred in a Hollywood movie called Double Team with a certain basketballer named Dennis Rodman. One snippeta penchant for the films of Jean-Claude van Dammedid, however, appear to apply to the two boys, both of whom apparently loved to watch movies featuring the Belgian action star. Subsequent authoritative statements, including the North Korean foreign ministers remarks at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2017, have continued to hew to the same line: [North Koreas] national nuclear force is, to all intents and purposes, a war deterrent for putting an end to nuclear threat of the U.S. and for preventing its military invasion, he said, adding that Pyongyangs ultimate goal is to establish the balance of power with theU.S.. The other kids in the school could only dream of having such shoes, said Nikola Kovacevic, another former classmate who often played basketball with Kim after school and estimates a pair cost more than $200 in Switzerland at the time. But he may be reaching a critical point where he has to make a strategic choice. In contrast with his battle-hardened elders, Kim Jong-un grew up in a cocoon of indulgence andprivilege. Fujimoto, the sushi chef, has described Jong-uns mother as not very strict about education and says that he was never forced to study. He inherited the nukes, the repressive bureaucracy, the gulags and the fear and theres no way to escape it. Not so for Kim. In the six years since, Kim has collected a number of honorifics, cementing his position as North Koreas leader. Once Kim did become the leader, and as such the personification of North Koreas national interest, he was endowed with all the tools of political repression that had consolidated his fathers and grandfathers supremacy. Such confidence may be bolstered by the fact that Kim has yet to face a real crisis of the kind his father and grandfather had to confront and manage. Every day at 5 p.m., when the school bell rang, Kim Jong Un would head to the basketball courts at his school or at the high school in the nearby city of Lerbermatt, less than a 10-minute walk away. Physically Kims trying to look like his grandfather, Cha said. Kim has overseen three more nuclear tests, and debuted and tested new ballistic missiles of various ranges from multiple locations, including a submarine-launched ballistic missile and, in July and November 2017, intercontinental ballisticmissiles. He reportedly urged the industry to be world competitive, praised the factory for helping women realize their dream of being beautiful, and offered his own comments on thepackaging. Pupils walk around the school compound during break time at Kitante Primary School in Kampala, Uganda Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. . However, Kim has carefully stopped short of actions that might lead to U.S. or allied military responses that would threaten theregime. But he seems determined to chart his own path. His strong self-esteem and confidence were cultivated beginning when he was very young. on January 10. Kim Yo-jong is the youngest child of North Korea's second leader, Kim Jong-il, and his consort Ko Yong-hui, a Japanese Korean dancer. Kim Jong-un seems determined to avoid thatfate. And make no mistake, Riesen said. Under this identity, Kim Jong Un settled in Liebefeld, where the architecture is more 70s concrete block than Alpine village. All of them had been accredited to the North Korean mission to the United Nations in Geneva since 1991, and these diplomatic documents would have allowed them to travel freely in Europe. Kim Il-sung, the countrys founder and Jong-uns grandfather who ruled for nearly five decades until his death in 1994, was a revolutionary hero who fought Japanese imperialism, the South Korean puppets, and the American jackals in a military conflict that ended only because of anarmistice. He had a hoop outside the apartment and would play out there often, sometimes making more noise than the neighbors would have preferred. These assumptions distort and skew our policydiscussions. We should also intensify pressure on the regime through information penetration, raising public awareness of Pyongyangs human rights violations, and create a credible, alternative vision for a post-Kim era to encouragedefections. While Kim has been developing and demonstrating advanced nuclear weapons capabilities, he has also focused on diversifying the Norths toolkit of provocations to include cyberattacks, the use of chemical and biological weapons, and the modernization of North Koreas military, which is among the worlds largest armed forces with over 1 million warriors. In short, this is not your grandfathersdictatorship. But this might not have been as jarring to Kim as it sounds because he had encountered very few North Koreans and almost none in situations outside those that were carefully choreographed to show smiling citizens who beamed contentment at him. Lets make sure hes learning the rightlessons. The carefully curated public appearances of Kims wife, Ri Sol-ju, provide the regime with a softer side, a thin veneer of style and good humor to mask the brutality, starvation, and deprivation endured by the people, while reports about the existence of possibly multiple children hint at Kim and his wifes fecundity and the potential for the birth of another male heir to the Kim family dynasty (although I wouldnt rule out the possibility for Kim to choose a daughter to lead North Korea, given his modern tendencies). The combined weight of all these pressures, internal and external, on North Korea, coming precisely at a time of rising expectations within the country, may overwhelm the regimeunless Kim learns to dial back his aggression. A teenager from next door. Riesen said Kim was a good student but not extraordinary.. That left Jong-un, whom the elder Kim chose to be the third Kim to lead North Korea because he was the most aggressive of his children. Kim Jongun has overseen four nuclear tests and debuted ballistic missiles of various ranges, launched from multiple locations. Kim Jong-un has a well-known love of basketball. As I have written elsewhere, we can still test Kims willingness to pursue a different course and shift his focus toward moves that advance denuclearization. I still agree with the U.S. intelligence communitys assessment that Pyongyangs nuclear capabilities are intended for deterrence, international prestige, and coercive diplomacy, as the director of National Intelligence testified in early 2017. He is a nice guy who could never be a villain. Indeed, he seems to be playing an unspecified supporting role in his younger brothersregime. So after nightfall on Sunday, May 17, Kim Jong Uns aunt and uncle packed their three children into a taxi and went to the U.S. Embassy. However, when the focus is on the frighteningly rapid pace and advancement of North Koreas cyber, nuclear, and conventional capabilities, Kim is portrayed as a ten-foot-tall giant with untold and unlimited power: unstoppable, undeterrable,omnipotent. He got along with his classmates, though he struggled with the Swiss-German dialect spoken in Bern and could sometimes be explosively competitive on the basketball court, said another former classmate, Marco Imhof. No such rights existed in North Korea. The capital city is rife with stylized propaganda. Democracy is part of our being here in Switzerland, Riesen said. Walk into any current or former CIA analysts office, and you will find a slim, purple book by Richards Heuer with the title Psychology of Intelligence Analysis. Behind the main street in an industrial alley, as the sign puts it, next door to a large wine trading company that looks like a monastery, is No. Given the steady drumbeat of internal purges, the sidelining of North Koreas diplomats since 2011 because of Kims focus on advancing his nuclear weapons program and conventional capabilities, and Kims apparent reveling in his recent war of words with President TrumpKim called Trump mentally deranged in response to Trumps personal attacks against Kim in his tweets and speech to the U.N. General Assembly in Septemberit would take a very brave North Korean official to counsel dialogue and efforts to mollify Washington and Beijing. He joined his older brother at the International School of Berne, a private, English-language school attended by the. The 12-year-old had a pudding-bowl haircut and the start of what would one day become a very pronounced double chin. kindly follow me on Instagram. While Kim has avidly pursued nuclear weapons, he is also, in accord with his announced policy of byungjin, deeply invested in improving the North Korean economycertainly a tall order given the gravity of internal changes, the weight of sanctions, and Beijings willingness to apply stronger pressure than we have seen before. Or in his naivet he may simply want his people to enjoy the things to which he has had privileged access. DVDs and flash drives of South Koreas soap operas and K-pop music have been smuggled into the country in ever greater numbers, infiltrating the previously sealed mental and cultural landscape of North Koreans and presenting a potential danger to the regime. It was extremely brutal how he killed his uncle and brother. The second son, Jong-chul, was deemed too effeminate; one of Jong-chuls friends recalled that [Jongchul] is not the type of guy who would do something to harm others. Kim has presided over high-profile artillery firepower demonstrations, been captured in photographs poring over military plans purported to depict attacks against the United States and South Korea, and has issued inflammatory threats in response to U.S. and internationalpressure. Ko Yong-hui (Korean: ; Korean pronunciation: [ko.jo.wi ]; 26 June 1952 - 13 August 2004), also spelled Ko Young-hee, was the consort of North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-il and the mother of his successor, Kim Jong-un.Within North Korea, she is only referred to by titles, such as "The Respected Mother who is the Most Faithful and Loyal 'Subject' to the Dear Leader Comrade . Questions & Answers 6 Ask a Question Apollo Tayebwa 28 Jan, 2023 There had been signs before 2011 that Kim was grooming his son for the succession: he began to accompany his father on publicized inspections of military units, his birth home was designated a historical site, and he began to assume leadership titles and roles in the military, party, and security apparatus, including as a four-star general in2010. And the Kim family dynastya totalitarian regimecarefully created a cult of personality around the young boy, as it had done with his father and grandfather before him, reinforcing it through fear and intimidation and shows of force. Bern was famous for its clock tower, known as the Zytglogge, which had led a young patent clerk called Albert Einstein to develop the theory of relativity some 90 years earlier. Sign up to get our best ideas of the day in yourinbox. There have been reports that the minimum height requirement for a soldier is 48 or 49. Predictions about Kims imminent fall, overthrow, or demise were rife among North Korea and Asia watchers. Their growth was so stunted by starvation that some barely grew above five feet. Their teachers said they had no idea what happened to him, either. Kim Jong-un is the first leader of North Korea to have been born in the country after its founding in 1948. Heuer, who worked at the CIA for 45 years in both operations and analysis, focused his book on how intelligence analysts can overcome, or at least recognize and manage, the weaknesses and biases in our thinking processes. It could also be on track to have up to 100 nuclear weapons and a variety of missileslong-range, road-mobile, and submarine-launchedthat could be operational as early as 2020. Under Kim, North Korea has conducted major cyberattacks and reportedly used a chemical nerve agent to kill Kims half-brother at an internationalairport. The UN children's agency and the governments of the U.K. and Ireland announced financial support focusing on virus surveillance and the mental health of students and teachers in 40,000 schools. Reprinted by permission of PublicAffairs, New York, N.Y. All rights reserved. Captured on camera, the attack occurred in Malaysias airport, and images of Jong-nams gruesome death were circulated around theworld. He was a loner and didnt share anything about his private life.. He is a grandson of Kim Il-sung, who was the founder and first supreme leader of North Korea from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. Fujimoto claims that Jong-il had chosen his youngest son to succeed him as early as 1992, citing as evidence the scene at Jong-uns ninth birthday banquet where Jong-il instructed the band to play Footsteps and dedicated the song to his son: Tramp, tramp, tramp; The footsteps of our General Kim; Spreading the spirit of February [a reference to Kim Jong-il, who was born in February]; We, the people, march forward to a bright future.

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