🇰🇷 Kim Ung-Yong

Kim Ung-yong was born in Seoul in 1962. Korean newspapers covered him as a toddler for reading, languages and mathematics far beyond his age, and he appeared in public demonstrations of mathematical skill as a young child.

The famous number, 210, comes from Kim's own account. In a 2011 interview with the Seoul Shinmun he described a test of about seven hours taken in Japan at around age seven, with a maximum score of 200, to which 10 points were added. The test is not named and no record has been published. Guinness once listed him for the world's highest IQ (The Korea Herald, 2014); the edition and year are not confirmed. Our fact-check classes the figure as his own report, not a measured score on record.

Kim has said he went to the United States and worked for NASA as a boy; Korean press, such as E-Today in 2014, repeat that he was a NASA researcher at 12. No NASA document confirming it has been published, so we report it as his claim.

He returned to South Korea in the late 1970s, studied and worked in civil engineering, and in 2014 became a full-time university professor (The Korea Herald, 14 January 2014; Joongboo Ilbo, 2014).

In interviews he has rejected the label. He told the Joongboo Ilbo that he has never called himself a genius and that a high IQ does not mean a person can do everything well. Korean media long described him as a "failed genius"; he has disputed that framing.

Kim's story matters for one reason: it is the clearest case of how a single unverified childhood number can follow a person for sixty years. See our fact-check of famous IQ claims for the sources behind it.