GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – North Korea is reportedly planning an amnesty for prisoners, but no further details are available, say a number of media, citing the country’s official news agency. Birthdays of leaders are moveable feasts in North Korea, and those of its two previous leaders, Kim Jong-il, who died 17 December 2011 and his father Kim Il-sung, appear to be the excuse for the release of prisoners that could start 1 February.
Current leader, and former Bern schoolboy Kim Jong-un may have celebrated his own birthday 8 January, although the date is not certain, and his two predecessors’ birthdays are equally vague, although celebrated 16 February for his father and 15 April for his grandfather.
Kim Jong-un’s birth date was determined by Korean media by compiling information from a former Japanese sushi chef who worked for the family for 19 years, old Swiss schoolmates and N Korean defectors.
Links to other sites: Amnesty International, BBC, Korea Times
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The “Great Successor”, Kim Jong-un, has officially been named the successor to his father, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, 69, who died Monday 19 December of a heart attack while traveling, according to media reports coming out of the country. The son, who is reportedly in his late 20s, surfaced as part of N Korea’s political picture in 2010, when he was appointed to several senior posts, including military ones.
He spent some of his time in early adolescence at a state school in Bern.
South Korea has put its military forces on high alert; the two countries have officially been at war for more than 60 years and N Korea in recent months has been the target of much criticism from the West for its nuclear programme.
Links to other sites: CNN, Sydney Morning Herald, Reuters,
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A North Korean senior official has announced it and photo agencies have offered living proof that Kim Jong Un will likely succeed his father, Kim Jong Il, as leader of North Korea when the father dies. Kim Jong-Il has been in failing health since a cerebral hemorrhage in August 2008.
The leader-to-be, who attended school in canton Bern as a young teenager, is an apple-cheeked young man now, whose exact age is not known. In September he was made a four-star general, and photos of a major parade review Sunday 10 October in Pyongyang are the first to show him with his father.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Ri Tcheul (also spelled Chol) 75-year-old North Korean diplomat who has been ambassador to the United Nations and international organizations since 1987 and ambassador to Switzerland as well since 1998, is rumoured to be leaving Geneva soon. The North Korean mission has not confirmed or denied the information. AP news agency reports that the South Korean government cannot confirm the information.
Media reports from South Korea say that Ri, who is widely believed to have managed funds for longtime leader Kim Jong-il, is leaving for unknown reasons, but given his long tenure in Geneva they are probably not political. He arrived in Geneva in 1980 as foreign minister for the North Korean mission.
International media are picking up speculation by South Korean television, based on what it says sources have told it, that the North’s leader, Kim-Jong Il, has pancreatic cancer that is putting his life in danger. The information is unconfirmed but is causing concern because of the instability that could be provoked in the North if he dies without a successor clearly in place. Swiss-educated younger son Kim Jong-un is rumoured to be in line to succeed him, but North Korea has not made an announcement to this effect, notes the Guardian, UK.
Kim Jong-un, the 26-year old third son of North Korea’s dear leader Kim Jong-il paid an official and secret visit to Beijing 10 June and was presented to the Chinese leadership as his father’s designated heir. Analysts speculate that the Swiss-educated Kim was named by his father to succeed him because of the elder Kim’s failing health. In Bern, Switzerland, a public school in Koeniz called a press conference after reports in Japanese newspapers that the younger Kim had also attended a public school there, not just the private International School in Guemligen. Reuters, NZZ (Ger)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch and sources) – Aging and probably ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong Il surprised the world by reportedly naming his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, 26, as the new leader of North Korea, according to South Korean media, who cite the South’s spy agency. Kim Jong Un spent much of his youth at the International School of Bern in Switzerland where he was learned English, French and German, and he was known to be shy, a fan of basketball and action sports. Even if the rumours of his succession are true, it could be years before he steps into the job.
Ed. note: Swiss news magazine and GL partner l’Hebdo 19 March 2009 carried a lengthy feature on the boy known in Bern as Chol Pak: Kim Jong Il.
