North Korea's nuclear commander Kim Jong-un flunked school
North Korea's nuclear commander Kim Jong-un flunked school
- by: JAMES BONE
- From: The Times
- April 03, 2012 11:00AM
Leader Kim Jong-un may have his finger on the nuclear trigger, as North Korea prepares to launch a satellite missile, but he didn't manage to pass science when he was at school. Source: AP
THE MAN with his finger on the nuclear trigger in North Korea was a poor pupil who often only turned up for class in the afternoon.
Kim Jong-un, the country's young dictator, flunked science at his school in Switzerland and barely passed other subjects, a Swiss newspaper reported.
International negotiators trying to prevent a planned North Korean missile test may ponder the fact that he did best in music and technical studies.
Mr Kim, 29, who took over from his father, Kim Jong-il, in December, studied at the International School of Berne for two years as a teenager under the pseudonym Un Pak.
He did poorly despite being put in a class of pupils who were two years younger than him because of his limited German.
A former classmate told the Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche, that the future North Korean leader would often skip classes in the morning.
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In his first year Mr Kim missed 75 days of school, while in his second year he was absent for 105 days. Perhaps as a result, Mr Kim got poor grades. He failed natural sciences with a score of 3.5 out of 6, and barely obtained the passing grade of 4 for maths, culture and society and German language.
Even in English, where he was originally placed in an advanced class, he was later downgraded to a normal class and received just a passing 4 grade. Only in music and technical studies did he do any better, with a 5.
Mr Kim was 15 when his father took him out of the International School, one of the top private schools in Switzerland, and moved him to the state Liebefeld-Steinholzli School outside Berne.
Former pupils there remember him as a teenager who wore Nike trainers and a Chicago Bulls sweatshirt and who loved basketball and computer games, but did poorly in class. He again went incognito, with teachers describing him as the son of North Korean diplomats.
North Korea said yesterday that its ruling party would hold a special conference on April 11 to boost Mr Kim's power.
The hermetic Communist country is preparing to celebrate the 100th anniversary on April 15 of the birth of Mr Kim's grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the founder of the dynasty that has ruled since 1948.
Between April 12 and 16, North Korea plans to launch a long-range rocket it says will put a satellite into orbit. The move has been met with international condemnation amid concern that the nuclear power is actually testing its ballistic missile capability.
The party conference is expected to complete the power transfer to Mr Kim, who was proclaimed "great successor" after the death of his father. So far, Mr Kim holds only one of his father's posts - commander of the country's 1.2 million-strong military.
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Originally Posted by Rick Donaldson
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