N.K. leader's aunt living in U.S. recalls life in Pyongyang

WASHINGTON, May 27 (Yonhap) -- Top North Korean generals began bowing to current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un since he was only 8 years old, the leader's aunt, living in the United States, was quoted as saying in an interview published Friday.

Ko Yong-suk, sister of Kim's late mother, Ko Yong-hui, held the interview with the Washington Post, talking about their life in Pyongyang as well as their defection to the U.S. in 1998 when they were living in Bern, Switzerland.

Ko said the North's leader was born in 1984, the same year as their first son.

"He wasn't a troublemaker but he was short-tempered and had a lack of tolerance," Ko was quoted as saying. "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."

The leader's mother, Ko's sister, died of breast cancer in 2004.

Ko said that Kim had known since 1992 that he would one day inherit North Korea. At his 8th birthday party, Kim was given a general’s uniform decorated with stars, and real generals with real stars bowed to him and paid their respects to him from that moment on, Ko said.

"It was impossible for him to grow up as a normal person when the people around him were treating him like that," Ko was quoted as saying.

Ko's husband, Ri Gang, said he can play a mediator's role between Washington and Pyongyang.

"My ultimate goal is to go back to North Korea. I understand America and I understand North Korea, so I think I can be a negotiator between the two," Ri told the Post. "If Kim Jong-un is how I remembered he used to be, I would be able to meet him and talk to him."

Kim Jong-un took over as leader after his father, Kim Jong-il, died in late 2011, in communism's second hereditary succession of power.

jschang@yna.co.kr
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