Secrets of Kim's Swiss school days revealed

North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-un spent more of his childhood being educated under a pseudonym in Switzerland than originally thought, the Swiss press reported yesterday.

He travelled to Switzerland in 1991, aged eight or nine, not in 1998 as was previously thought, Le Matin Dimanche and the Sonntags Zeitung reported, citing Swiss police documents.

Little is known about Kim, but a boy called Pak Un is said to have registered as the son of an embassy employee and then attended a school in Berne from 1998 until late 2000.

School friends have identified Pak Un as Kim Jong-un and the newspapers say they can prove – through a scientific comparison of a school photo and pictures of the North Korean leader – that Pak and Kim are one and the same. It was not clear where the boy had gone to school between 1991 and 1998.

Reuters