Posted on 06/11/2018 1:55:01 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Former classmates schooled alongside North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un in Switzerland cannot reconcile the unhinged dictator with the funny, popular boy they used to know.
As a young teen Kim was nothing like the ruthless, relative-executing despot the world has come to fear, according to his old mates at the German-speaking Liebefeld-Steinhölzli public school in Koeniz, south of Bern.
Instead, they remember a popular, slightly overweight boy with a collection of Nike trainers to die for.
Despite his weight and short stature (he was around 170cm tall), he loved — and was good at — basketball, with a passion for the Chicago Bulls.
“He was a good friend,” Bern chef Joao Micaelo, who attended Liebefeld-Steinhölzli with Kim for two years, told The Daily Beast.
“We had a lot of fun together. He was a good guy. Lots of kids liked him. I don’t know anything about his life today. All I know is the guy I knew in school.
“He loved basketball. We played a lot together. I’d like to say to him, if you ever have the time, please contact me again so we can catch up.”
Another childhood friend, Marco Imhof, remembered Kim as competitive but good-natured.
“He was funny,” Mr Imhof who is also based in Bern, told the Beast. “(He was) always good for a laugh. He also hated to lose. Winning was very important.”
Kim’s wit appears to have been one of his most beloved attributes.
“He had a sense of humour and got on well with everyone, even those pupils who came from countries who were enemies of North Korea,” an unnamed former classmate told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
“Politics were a taboo subject at school. We argued about (soccer) football, not politics.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
He was such a good boy....
He probably was. Humans can rationalize the most extreme behavior. Everyone is justified in their own eyes.
"Who is that?"
"That's that funny dude with all the shoes."
Yet, no pictures of Obama in school have come to light.
Interesting. My hunch all along has been that he felt obligated to continue the “evil genius” family business, but that eventually the evil genius’s lair gets pretty boring and lonely. I think he’s looking for a way to bring economic development to North Korea, and to be less isolated himself, while maintaining his dictatorship and seeking a measure of legitimacy for his rule.
Well, hell, Trump should throw in a tryout with the Bulls if he is a good boy. He might even make this team.
More:
Kim’s love of all things Swiss is no secret and he has honoured his childhood association with the country in various ways since becoming supreme leader.
In 2012, he oversaw construction of the US$35 million, Masikryong ski resort near Wonsan, Kangwon Province, which is said to have been inspired by his time in Switzerland.
However, his attempt to buy Swiss ski lifts for the resort was thwarted thanks to international sanctions.
The following year, Kim took over a large tract of land in Sepo, Kangwon Province and turned it into a pasture and an alpine farm.
The baby-faced dictator has also been known to gift Swiss watches to senior party officials.
I read that part of the story after posting my earlier comment. Seems to bolster my thought that he’s seeking access to the kinds of things he enjoyed before becoming an isolated dictator. This may be the key to the summit negotiations. I’ve never seen a summit like this with such personal, rather than national, motivations on the table for one of the parties involved. Puts him right where Trump wants him, I think.
In my world, it ends this way.
Kim cedes all power. Korea is re-united with South Korea in charge.
3-5 year transition with American military providing security and transitional government.
Kim granted secure asylum in the non-American country of his choice.
He should ask for an NBA franchise as his only condition.
That’s brilliant. Or every team plays one series in NK per season. The best player could wear a realistic Kim mask while he plays.
Freegards
Not out of the question.
But my question is: What is China’s price?
They’ve invested a lot of time and money in propping up North Korea. I don’t see them walking away and saying “Oh well, that’s just the way it goes, I guess...”
Once North Korea is settled down, we make a quick stop to free Iran, then on to China.
I hope you’re right. He does have a long trail of bodies for one so young however.
>> Everyone is justified in their own eyes <<
Yes, which reminds me that Basheer Assad, today’s bloody boss of Syria, was trained in England as a young man to be an ophthalmologist. No kidding!
“Yes, which reminds me that Basheer Assad, today’s bloody boss of Syria, was trained in England as a young man to be an ophthalmologist. No kidding!”
Interesting pic of him as a school boy.
I leaning to blaming his current aberrations on his hair stylist.
Of course, North Korean watches are always slow by 50 years.
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