According to reports, North-Korea’s self-styled Dear Leader Kim Jong-il is preparing to hand over power to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un. The regime’s obsession with secrecy means that there are no current pictures of Jong-un, but Kim Jong-il’s former personal Japanese Sushi chef claimed in a book that Jong-un “has superb physical gifts, is a big drinker and never admits defeat”.
The one thing that we are fairly certain of is that Kim Jong-un spent a few years studying at the International School in Berne. Former students describe him in a positive light. David Gatley, the director of the school between 1993 to 2004, is quoted as saying that Jong-un “ wasn't a show off, and he often would get involved in separating two friends who were fighting. He had a lot of friends among the children of American diplomats. He went on school trips. He once went to Eastern Europe on a trip organized by the drama department. We had a lot of trouble getting him a visa.”
How does it work? How can someone who studied in Switzerland, who became friends with American diplomats and who was apparently good a mediating peace between classmates return to North-Korea and take a leadership position in an oppressive regime?
Clearly, Kim Jong-un is a man who could have become a perfectly respectable Swiss citizen. Had he been born in different circumstances, there is nothing to suggest that he would have descended into violence. As his former principal and classmates tell us, he was not genetically programmed to be a remorseless tyrant.
The story of Kim Jong-il shows just how important it is to be raised in the right environment. We’re all capable of doing terrible things if we are manipulated or trained to do so. We must stay vigilant, because even good kids like Kim Jong-il can be turned into monsters.
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