Jong Un’s aunt is a dry cleaner in New York

NEW YORK: The aunt of North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un lives anonymously in New York, where she runs a dry cleaning business after having defected in 1998, The Washington Post reported Friday. Ko Yong-suk — who lives with her husband Ri Gang and their three children — was the sister of Ko Yong Hui, one of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s wives and mother of Kim Jong Un.

Close to North Korea’s communist regime, the couple was sent to Switzerland to look after members of the ruling family studying there, including Kim Jong Un.

“He wasn’t a troublemaker but he was short-tempered and had a lack of tolerance,” Ko said of Kim. “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.”

Ko said Kim was born in 1984, meaning he was merely 27 when he took over from his father Kim Il Jong in 2011, not 33 or 34 at the time as previously believed.

Ko’s own son was born the same year and the two boys would play together. “He and my son were playmates from birth,” she told the Post. “I changed both of their diapers.” Kim’s main interest was basketball, Ko said. “He started playing basketball, and he became obsessed with it,” she said, adding that he even slept with a basketball.

Kim is reported to have been a Michael Jordan fan and as leader hosted former basketball star Dennis Rodman several times in Pyongyang.