First of all, Kim Jong-un's exact date of birth is unknown . The official North Korean version places his birth on January 8, 1982 , while South Korean intelligence services maintain that he was born on January 8, 1983.
Dennis Rodman ,
a flamboyant former NBA basketball player and a close friend of Kim, confirmed this second hypothesis .
You may be wondering how such an anti-American leader could be such close friends with a basketball player, given that basketball is practically the symbol of the United States, not only in sport but also in culture. Well, you should know that Kim lived in Bern between 1993 and 1998 , under an assumed name and with a South Korean passport: it is precisely there that the North Korean supreme leader likely cultivated a deep passion for basketball.
He completed his Swiss studies in Koniz , a town near Bern, where he lived between 1998 and 2000. Here he changed his identity again (now posing as the son of a North Korean diplomat working at the Swiss embassy) and created a more or less large circle of friends who still remember the current North Korean leader fondly: "he was very nice", "he was awkward with girls", "he never talked about politics or geopolitics, he was only interested in basketball, the NBA in particular".
One of his closest companions at the time even revealed how Kim had secretly confided in him that he was the son of the North Korean leader.
Originally second in line to his brother Kim Jong-nam , he became the direct heir to the North Korean 'throne' only because North Korean assassins caught his brother violating the regime's strict rules of conduct (he had secretly traveled to Tokyo, Japan, to visit Disneyland ): Kim Jong-nam was then killed , and Kim Jong-un took over the reins of North Korea.
Kim was chosen among his other brothers as direct heir by his father, Kim Jong-il, also because he was considered more viral, enterprising and resolute than the others: in fact, some delicate decisions that the current North Korean leader made at a young age are noteworthy (the sinking of the Cheonan and the bombing of Yeonpyeong ) and which allowed him to gain credibility with his father.
Since late 2011, Kim Jong-un has ruled North Korea alone and unchallenged, with one obsession: nuclear weapons . The supreme leader has repeatedly stated his readiness to launch a preemptive nuclear strike
against his historic rivals, the United States,
"if time permits."
Since 2018, North Korea has expanded its arsenal by equipping itself with a hydrogen bomb .