Berne International School via Yonhap - EPA

An undated photo made available by the Berne International School believed to show Kim Jong Un (circled) posing with schoolmates during his school days in Switzerland.

Reuters reports:

Former pupils of a school in Switzerland believe the young lad who loved playing basketball and watching action movies and was always "good for a laugh" may have been none other than Kim Jong Un, son and anointed successor of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Harold Cunningham / Getty Images

A general view of the International School of Berne in Guemligen, Berne, Switzerland, on Dec. 19, 2011.

Joao Micaelo, who now works as a chef in a Vienna restaurant, told Reuters he was a good friend of a North Korean teenager with a different name when they both attended the German-speaking Steinhoelzli school in Berne from 1998 to 2000.

But he only learnt of his true identity in mid-2009 from Japanese and South Korean journalists, he said, adding he recognized him in photographs.

"He was a big fan of the Chicago Bulls ... His life was basketball at this time," Micaelo said. "I think 80 percent of our time we were playing basketball."

Local administration education director Ueli Studer told Reuters that a boy known as Pak Un, registered as a child of a North Korean embassy employee, attended the Steinhoelzli school in the Berne suburb of Liebefeld from 1998 until just after starting 9th grade in late 2000.

Harold Cunningham / Getty Images

A basketball court at the school in Berne.

"The student Pak Un attended the school for two to three years and left abruptly in the middle of a school year," he said, adding that this was not unusual for children of embassy employees.

"Pak Un attended a class for non-German speaking pupils but then quickly moved over to another class. He was described as well-integrated, diligent and ambitious. His hobby was basketball," Studer said.

Studer said he could not confirm nor deny that Pak Un was in fact Kim Jong Un.

Marco Imhof, another former schoolmate, told Swiss television last year that his friend Pak Un spoke a mixture of German and the local Bern dialect of Swiss German.

"He was funny. Always good for a laugh," Imhof said. "I can't believe that I played basketball with him here and now he could rule North Korea." Read the full story.

Korean Central TV of the North via Reuters

Kim Jong Un pays his respects to his father Kim Jong Il who is lying in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Dec. 20, 2011.

Related content:

• Kim Jong Il's body is put on display
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• NYT: In Kim's death, an extensive intelligence failure
• Mourning in North Korea, worries in South after Kim Jong Il's death
• PhotoBlog: Satellites document North Korea's dark ages
• PhotoBlog: North Koreans mourn the death of Kim Jong Il, the 'Dear Leader'
• Slideshow: The life of Kim Jong Il
• Slideshow: Journey into North Korea

John Brecher / msnbc.com

Students discuss a poem by Maya Angelou in teacher Fatima Quadri's literature class at MCC Full Time School in the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove, Illinois.

John Brecher / msnbc.com

Students in a special "Hafiz" program work on memorizing the entire Quran at MCC Full Time School in the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove, Ill.

John Brecher writes: Msnbc.com's Kari Huus and I recently visited an Islamic school in suburban Chicago, producing this video and story. Most of the students in the school, like the girls in the top picture, have a standard curriculum as well as classes about the Quran and Islamic history. A couple dozen students attend a special class in which they memorize the entire Quran. According to the school's principal, that's 114 chapters - more than six thousand verses.

That's quite an undertaking, to memorize an entire book, and it's a notable activity that distinguishes this school from a public school. That said, it's only taken on by a couple dozen out of the school's several hundred students, so I didn't think it represented the school as a whole. For the cover of the site, then, I considered images like the first one above: students working through the secular curriculum while wearing hijabs. The second image ran inside the text of the story.

Shi Tou / Reuters

A girl leads as pupils dance to Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" during a daily exercise routine at a primary school in Wushan county, Chongqing municipality, China on April 14. A total of 725 pupils in the school dance to the Michael Jackson hit song every morning as a routine exercise program between classes, according to local media.

Shi Tou / Reuters

Pupils dance to Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" during a daily exercise routine at a primary school in Wushan, China on April 14.

Following in the dance-steps of Russian zombie impersonators and Filipino prisoners, students at an elementary school in China have incorporated Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" into their daily exercise routine.

Carlos Barria / Reuters

Children attend a ceremony on their first day of school at Shimizu elementary school in Fukushima, northern Japan on April 6. Over 70 schools began their regular classes on Wednesday in the city of Fukushima, after the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on March 11.

Carlos Barria / Reuters

A girl walks with her mother after her first day of school at the Shimizu elementary school in Fukushima on April 6.

Carlos Barria / Reuters

Children sit inside a classroom on their first day of school at Shimizu elementary school in Fukushima on April 6.

As Alan Boyle reports on Cosmic Log, the Fukushima nuclear disaster's long-term impact on Japan is expected to be considerable. I find myself wondering how these children's lives will be affected as they go through their school careers.