How A Shy Boy From North Korea Became The World's Scariest Dictator

For the past 50 years, the world has grown used to crazy threats from North Korea that don't lead anywhere.

But with young and untested Kim Jong-un in charge of a nuclear arsenal, no one knows what will happen next.

On January 8 in 1982 or 1983 or 1984, Kim Jong-un was born.

His parents were future North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il and his consort, Ko Young-hee.

He had an older brother named Kim Jong-chul and would later have a younger sister named Kim Yo-jong.

While Jong-un's official birth year is 1982, various reports suggest that the year was changed for symbolic reasons, including that it was100 years after the birth of Kim Il-sung and 70 years after the birth of Jong-il.

Jong-un (pictured here with his mother) lived at home as a child.

During this period, North Korea was ruled by "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung.

While Jong-il was the heir apparent, Jong-un's path to command was far less certain.

Then it was off to Switzerland to attend boarding school.

Called "Pak-un" or "Chol Pak" and described as the son of an employee of the North Korean embassy, Jong-un is thought to have attended the English-language "International School" in Gümligen near Bern.

Jong-un is described by former classmates as a quiet student who spent most of his time at home, but he had a sense of humor too.

“He was funny," former classmate Marco Imhof told The Mirror. "Always good for a laugh."

“He had a sense of humour; got on well with everyone, even those pupils who came from countries that were enemies of North Korea,” another former classmate told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. “Politics was a taboo subject at school . . . we would argue about football, not politics.”

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