Kim Jong-un: The Unauthorized Biography

When seen through the lens

of North Korean propaganda, he looks like

the happy winner of the best job in the world contest.

Each time he's out in public, he has the air of a man

marveling the discovery of a populous country

that his parents built just for him.

A country where he has a hand in just about everything,

drawing up plans for a new corporate Pyongyang,

being a lifeguard for the youth of North Korea,

sampling the biscuits which will soon

flood the regime's groceries,

overseeing the growth of the chicks on the state farms,

and even acting as an adviser to the country's hair salons.

Arduous days, but days where he can still find the time

to try out the latest rides at the capital's amusement park.

These absurd, amusing, but also terrifying images

are the only ones we have

to help us understand this young man

who is at the controls of a nuclear power.

Kim Jong-un does not give interviews,

so we have decided to go and meet those

who know him best

in an attempt to draw a clear portrait of him.

Our journey begins in the heart of the Swiss Alps,

in Bern, the capital of the Swiss Confederation.

This is the home of one of the biggest

North Korean communities abroad.

It's a discreet community whose activities

have nonetheless attracted the attention of a member

of the consortium of investigative journalists.

There is a historical explanation.

Switzerland is a neutral country,

a member of the United Nations in Geneva

and other international bodies,

and North Koreans have always had access to Switzerland

with its peaceful side and its respect for privacy.

Many famous people have sent their children

to be educated here in Switzerland.

These are probably the reasons that compelled Kim Jong-il

to send his children to Switzerland.

- A study of Swiss administrative documents

reveals the existence of a Mr. Pak, for whom in 1992,

the North Korean embassy in Switzerland

requested a visa and the posting to Bern.

The visa request bore the names of three children:

Chol, Hun, and Mi-yong.

The names were only slightly ordered

and the birthdays were identical.

Mr. Pak's children were, in fact,

those of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il.

We knew the children were here.

We knew their real identities,

but it was not a problem for the Swiss authorities.

It was even seen as a boon.

Why?

To maintain links with the country

which had already cut itself off from the rest of the world.

- The unusual family spent a year

living at the embassy

in a residential suburb of Bern.

Chol, the eldest, enrolled at a nearby international school

for the children of diplomats and businessmen.

His brother, Hun, joined a state school in the town.

He spoke German with his classmates.

After a few difficult months,

he was said to be a rowdy loner

but he finally made a handful of Swiss friends

and settled into school life.

The boy's school was (mumbles).

They were sometimes mediocre,

sometimes alright,

and he was very much into sports.

And he was particularly interested in basketball.

He was very keen and quite good at it.

- Around this time, the Pak family moved

into an ordinary apartment near the school.

Visitors were not welcome,

but there were photos of the property

on the estate agent's website,

showing a standard, middle-class family home.

Living here meant the children could enjoy

a free and easy life with their friends.

They sometimes had lessons in Swiss democracy at school.

They even got to visit the Swiss Parliament.

And then, yes, he made friends.

Some of them even told us that they were invited

to his home to play Gameboy, et cetera.

We also know that Kim Jong-un used to

play basketball wth his neighborhood friends,

not necessarily of his own class,

pretty much every evening,

and that he was a perfectly pleasant kid

like all kids of his age.

- The pictures we have of Pak Hun

are in sharp contrast with the images

we have of Kim Jong-un.

How can we be certain that this is the same man

who spent his entire adolescence in Switzerland?

Judicial identification experts compared the two images.

Facial spacing, ears, teeth,

there seemed to be no possible doubt,

added to which, another clue was unearthed

by the Swiss secret service.

A North Korean woman by the name of Ko Yong-hui

regularly arrived in Switzerland by private plane.

The Swiss agency who tailed her suspected

she was smuggling precious metals,

but the truth was something else altogether.

So she would arrive and usually stay

two, three or four months

and she would stay at the house, too.

But she would also go off on regular shopping trips

in the great capitals of Europe.

Or there would be big family get-togethers.

I was told about a family reunion

which took place in a hotel at Interlaken, for instance,

where the family rented out a whole wing

of the hotel in (mumbles).

During the '90s,

Kim Jong-il's private life was a state secret.

Nobody knew about his three mistresses and four children.

And when his health started to deteriorate,

North Korea's neighbors were worried

about who would succeed him,

and what might happen if Kim Jong-il

were to disappear suddenly.

But within the Kim family's secretive bosom,

the decision had long since been made.

The eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, would have seemed

to be the natural successor in the Confucian tradition,

just as Kim Jong-il had inherited power from his father.

But Kim Jong-nam had committed several gaffes,

among them, an embarrassing arrest in Tokyo

with a fake passport.

He had wanted to visit Disneyland with his family.

The second son, Kim Jong-chul, educated in Switzerland,

was considered too soft, even too feminine, by his father.

Kim Jong-un may well have been the youngest son,

but he was also the son of Kim Jong-il's

greatest love, Ko Yong-hui.

The former dancer would play a significant role

in the corridors of power.

- Ko Yong-hui played an important part in ensuring

that her sons took over the reins of power.

Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son, already had an important role

in the country's hierarchy, with an elevated position

at the general bureau of data processing,

where he specialized in communication networks.

But since Kim Jong-un took control,

Kim Jong-nam has found himself in an awkward position.

He can no longer return to North Korea.

The 17th of December 2011,

North Korea was in mourning.

Kim Jong-il, the shining son of the 21st century,

had died just a few days before.

It was time for the propaganda machine

to set up the funeral scene.

The funeral would also be the confirmation

of the youngest son's succession,

which had been confirmed to North Korea

and the rest of the world a year earlier.

Kim Jong-il was ruling the country

basically had senior position for quite some time

before he became the leader;

at least 10 years that he was involved.

And Kim Jong-un, I think, it all came very suddenly.

The propaganda, they did a bit of going back

and sort of trying to create a story about how

he was being trained many years in advance,

but that wasn't the case at all.

I mean, the fact of the matter was that

his father had the first stroke and that's when

they started becoming concerned about his succession.

And then he died quite suddenly,

and I think the young fellow was not ready.

There was a plan, I think, to have him become

the next leader, but I imagine they were thinking

five, 10 years, not one year.

I think it was very clear from the funeral everything,

the way he looked, and the way he was behaving,

that he was in shock and not really ready to take over.

- Kim Jong-un's problems had already begun.

Did the aging generals gathered around his father's coffin

see such a young leader in a favorable light?

Kim Il-sung, the founder of the nation, staked his claim

by leading the anti-Japanese guerilla army

during the second World War.

Kim Jong-il was the regime's second-in-command

for 15 years also, and then assumed power after 50 years.

Kim Jong-un, however, was a mere 26 years old

with no experience and no reputation to precede him.

So in order to keep his grip on the reins of power,

he embarked on a monstrous purge.

The regime needed to be represented

by a whole new generation.

- Today, Kim Jong-un needs to connect with people

who remember the great famine from their childhood.

I believe it will be harder to maintain solidarity

between the elite and the leader

than it was for the two previous regimes.