Hang on, what language is Kim Jong-un speaking?
Livestreaming reveals that the North Korean leader has a unique ‘Swiss-influenced’ accent, a result of his years studying at a German-language boarding school near Bern
While all eyes have been on the historic summit meeting between the two Koreas, those who kept their ears cocked were in for a surprise.
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Kim spent his formative years studying at a German language boarding school near Bern, Switzerland, where he lived under the pseudonym “Pak-un” from the age of 15, which explains his unusual accent.
Differences between North and South Korean saturi, or dialects, have long been viewed as a major barrier for North Korean defectors seeking to assimilate into South Korean society. Many defectors claim that their accents, different vocabularies and colloquialisms have made them outsiders; others learn to speak the standard Seoul or Gyeonggi dialect in order to fit in.
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“The biggest issues with communication between North and South Koreans tend to be colloquialisms and English loanwords. South Korean slang, particularly internet slang, usually involves words from English or other languages, or could be abbreviations of longer Korean phrases,” said Jenna Gibson, director of communications at the Korea Economic Institute.