Imagine a chubby teenager in a Chicago Bulls tracksuit, hunched over a desk in a quiet Swiss suburb, obsessively sketching Michael Jordan. He’s not doing his homework. He’s definitely not thinking about nuclear centrifuges. He’s just a shy, somewhat awkward kid who goes by the name "Pak Un."
That was the reality for Kim Jong Un as a kid.
Before he became the "Supreme Leader" and a permanent fixture on global news tickers, he was a ghost in the European education system. Most people think he was raised in a dark bunker, fed on a diet of military strategy and propaganda. The truth? It’s way more "suburban teenager" than you’d expect, though with a surreal, dark undercurrent that only makes sense in hindsight.
The Swiss Years: A Ghost in Berne
From roughly 1991 to 2000, the future dictator lived a double life in Switzerland. He wasn't some high-profile prince. He was registered as the son of a North Korean embassy employee.
He attended two different schools: the private International School of Berne in Gümligen and later the public Liebefeld-Steinhölzli school.
His classmates from that time, like Joao Micaelo, remember a kid who was "quiet" but had a competitive streak that bordered on aggressive—at least when a basketball was involved. Honestly, it’s kinda weird to think about. You’ve got this kid who would eventually command one of the world's largest armies, but at 14, he was mostly worried about his Nike collection and whether he could hit a three-pointer.
- The "Pak Un" Persona: He didn't use his real name.
- The Grades: They weren't great. He struggled with German and often failed exams.
- The Lifestyle: He lived in a modest-looking apartment at Kirchstrasse 10, but inside, it was a tech paradise. We're talking Sony PlayStations and the latest gadgets that his Swiss peers could only dream of.
Basketball, Michael Jordan, and the NBA Obsession
If there is one thing that defined Kim Jong Un as a kid, it was basketball. It wasn't just a hobby; it was an identity.
He didn't just play; he lived it. He wore authentic NBA jerseys. He spent hours drawing meticulous pencil sketches of Michael Jordan. His friend Joao recalls that Kim was "very competitive" on the court. He wasn't the tallest, but he was fast and had a "never-lose" attitude.
This obsession explains a lot about his later life—like why Dennis Rodman is one of the few Americans to ever get a personal invite to Pyongyang. It’s a direct line back to his childhood bedroom in Berne.
According to Kenji Fujimoto, the Kim family’s former sushi chef, the boys (Jong Un and his older brother Jong Chol) played basketball because their father, Kim Jong Il, thought it would make them taller.
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The Darker Side: A "Little Dictator" in Training?
While his Swiss classmates saw a shy kid, those inside the North Korean inner circle saw something else.
Kenji Fujimoto’s memoirs are pretty eye-opening here. He describes a 7-year-old Kim Jong Un who refused to shake his hand at first, looking at the Japanese chef with a "sharp, cold glare."
"He was always the leader," Fujimoto wrote. "He decided what to play. He always spoke for the group."
Even back then, there was a hierarchy. His older brother, Kim Jong Chol, was reportedly seen as too "feminine" or "weak" by their father. Jong Un, despite being the youngest, had the "swagger." He was the one who would bum Yves Saint Laurent cigarettes from the chef as a teenager and wonder aloud how the "common people" were doing back home while he lived in a palace.
What Really Happened When He Left?
In late 2000, "Pak Un" just disappeared.
No graduation. No goodbye party. He was pulled out of school abruptly and sent back to Pyongyang. Some say his father was worried he was becoming "too Western." Others think it was just time for his formal military "grooming" to begin at the Kim Il Sung National War College.
When he resurfaced years later, he wasn't the skinny kid in the Bulls jersey anymore. He had the haircut, the suit, and the weight of a dynasty.
Why This Matters Today
Understanding Kim Jong Un as a kid isn't just about trivia. It gives us a peek into the "why" of his leadership.
He grew up with a foot in two worlds: the absolute, god-like isolation of the Pyongyang palaces and the mundane, democratic reality of a Swiss public school. He knows what the West looks like. He knows what a PlayStation is. He knows the power of American pop culture because he loved it.
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Yet, he chose the path of his father and grandfather.
Actionable Takeaways for the Curious:
- Read the Sources: If you want the deep dive, check out The Great Successor by Anna Fifield. She tracked down his actual classmates and the aunt who raised him in Switzerland.
- Look at the Context: Don't view him as a cartoon villain. View him as a man who was systematically "warped" by a dynasty, despite having a relatively "normal" middle-school experience.
- Observe the Patterns: Notice how he uses "accessibility" (hugging people, visiting theme parks) in his propaganda—this is a direct influence of the Western "man of the people" style he saw in Europe, which his father never used.
The kid who drew Michael Jordan is still in there somewhere, but he's buried under decades of statecraft and the brutal reality of North Korean survival.