Kim Ung-Yong: The Boy Genius Who Shocked The World

Kim Ung-yong was a remarkable child prodigy from Korea who demonstrated exceptional intellectual abilities from a very young age. He was able to read and write in multiple languages, including Japanese, Korean, German, and English, before he even turned four years old.

On November 2, 1967, at the age of four, he appeared on Japanese television and amazed audiences by answering differential and integral calculus questions with ease. He also demonstrated his polyglottic ability and also showcased his talent for writing poetry.

Kim Ung-Yong Life as a Child Genius

Kim Ung-Yong was born on March 8, 1962, in Seoul, South Korea, to parents who were both accomplished educators. His father was a physics professor at Hanyang University, while his mother was a teacher at Seoul National University.

Even at a very young age, Kim demonstrated a remarkable aptitude for learning, having mastered both the Korean alphabet and 1,000 Chinese characters from studying the Thousand Character Classic, a 6th-century Chinese poem, by the time he was just one year old.

By age three, Kim had already developed a proficiency in calculus and had authored a best-selling book of essays, calligraphy, and illustrations in both English and German, which ran to a total of 247 pages.

He was also able to speak Korean, English, French, German, and Japanese by the time he was just five years old. From the age of 3 to 6, Kim attended Hanyang University as a guest student of physics.

His Initial Tv Appearances

Kim's exceptional abilities continued to attract attention from around the world, and at the age of five, he appeared on Fuji Television in Japan, where he amazed the audience by solving complex differential equations.

He later appeared on Japanese television once again, where he demonstrated his incredible talent by solving even more challenging differential and integral calculus problems.

When Kim was 7 years old, he received an invitation from NASA to go to the United States. He went on to complete his university studies in physics, and earned a Ph.D. from Colorado State University before he turned 15(this report of him obtaining Ph.D. from Colorado State university is suspected to be nonfactual).

While still a university student in 1974, he began conducting research at NASA, and he continued this work until he returned to Korea in 1978.

After returning to South Korea, Kim had to fulfill the formal education requirements in order to pursue a career, as per sources. He managed to complete his elementary, middle, and high school degrees in only two years. Later, he enrolled in Chungbuk National University where he pursued civil engineering and eventually earned a Ph.D.

Vilified By The Media

As of 2007, Kim worked as an adjunct faculty member at Chungbuk National University. Later, on March 14, 2014, he was appointed as an associate professor at Shinhan University and also took up the position of vice president at the North Kyeong-gi Development Research Center.

Some were disappointed when Kim took his bags and left NASA, they expected the "boy genius" to be at the forefront of solving NASA complex problems. For his actions, Kim was labelled a failed genius. In Kim's words, his decision to leave NASA was for his happiness.

Kim expressed his disagreement with being labeled as a "failed genius" in 2010. When commenting on this, he said:

“I’m trying to tell people that I am happy the way I am. But why do people have to call my happiness a failure?”

He also expressed how lonely he was;

"I was really lonely. No one ever made friends with me. After work hours, I could exercise and enjoy my hobbies, but there was no one to accompany me. I came from another country and I was young, so there were no seats for children even though everyone was an adult."