WASHINGTON: The aunt of North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-Un lives anonymously in the United States, 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 under assumed names -- 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 the reclusive state's current leader.
"He wasn't a troublemaker but he was short-tempered and had a lack of tolerance," Ko said of Kim in an interview with the Washington Post in New York City and at her home, which was identified only as "several hours' drive away".
"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 not in 1982 or 1983 as previously believed -- meaning he was just 27 when he took over from his father Kim Jong-Il in 2011.
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 he has hosted former basketball star Dennis Rodman several times in Pyongyang.
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