Kim Jong Un's aunt recalls a child who was 'short-tempered and had a lack of tolerance'

(Image credit: PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images)

published 27 May 2016

As Kim Jong Un's aunt, Ko, tells it, the North Korean leader had a pretty "normal" childhood. The 60-year-old woman, who now lives in New York City, told The Washington Post that during her years living in Switzerland with her sister, Kim Jong Un's mother, she recalls their kids snacking on cake, playing with Legos, and shooting hoops. "He started playing basketball, and he became obsessed with it," Ko said of Kim Jong Un. "He used to sleep ... with his basketball."

But for all the normal childhood memories Ko has of Kim Jong Un, she also remembers spotting some inklings of the leader her nephew would someday become. "He wasn't a troublemaker but he was short-tempered and had a lack of tolerance," she said. "When his mother tried to tell him off for playing with these things too much and not studying enough, he wouldn't talk back but he would protest in other ways, like going on a hunger strike."