I don't wish to defend the regime in any way. However, do consider that while he has power, he's also the figurehead. There may be real constraints upon how much change he can meaningfully effect without the system falling apart entirely, or resulting in his removal if he treads on other powerful people's toes. He wouldn't be the first dictator which had to walk along a knife edge to maintain their power base and security.

There is sure no better way to show how you are constrained by the system than by ordering the assassination of your exiled brother with nerve gas in a foreign country !

The OP’s entire point is that often such decisions may be compelled by the opinions of the generals surrounding Kim. It has often been claimed that while a godlike aura is created around the Kim dynasty for the North Korean masses, decisionmaking has always involved negotiation between the Kims and senior military officials.

By senior military, do you mean his late uncle ? Assassinated as well.

No dictator has absolute power. They can't rule a nation single-handedly. Their will is enacted through others. There are many generals, and in essence an entire ruling class who run the country, and benefit from the status quo. He rules through them, and his power depends upon their consent to follow his leadership.

His uncle is almost an irrelevance. The system continued. It might have even been in the interest of others in that system that his uncle was removed to benefit them in some way. But, none of that really has much bearing upon the original point:

His rule depends upon others, and they will place constraints upon what he can and cannot do. It doesn't matter how enlightened, or how despicable, his wishes are. It will depend upon others to carry them out, or to refuse to do so. And they might have their own agendas and demands as well. That is what I meant by walking on a knife edge. He must balance competing internal interests, plus external ones, in order to maintain his position and the stability of the nation. One critical mistake, and he's gone. The same applies to all of the other people in power there as well. They benefit from their position, but one mistake and they are gone too. Not nice, but that's the way it is.

Plenty of historical examples from authoritarian states of generals conspiring to do away with a fellow general they don’t like for whatever reason.

I certainly don't doubt that he has considerable freedom of action in some areas, perhaps so long as his upper echelons agree with it. However, that doesn't imply he has the same freedom of action in all areas.

It's not as if his "upper" echelon had a strange tendency to get suicided either.

Would you argue that his education in Switzerland made North Korea any worse?

Not GP, but his education in Switzerland clarifies the fact that the leadership does not believe the propaganda they give to their populace. Kim is very aware that the promise of better living conditions is not a "lie manufactured by the West." He knows how bad his people have it compared to the rest of the world and still chooses to run his country the way he does. Food shortages are not a thing in Switzerland and also not a problem in his palace, but they are in other parts of DPRK.

So maybe his Swiss education doesn't make his citizens worse off, but we do know it's not some misled idealist at the helm, but rather a dictator that knows full well what he's doing.

It certainly didn’t improve things either. He is a murderer like the rest of the family.

Going for a proof by contradiction?

What you should be doing is looking at the averages. Are educated people in general more liberal?

He isn’t the only warlord/despot/war criminal receive at least some education in liberal Western schools. Perhaps either side to the argument presents a non falsifiable hypothesis given the sample sizes involved.

Well, North Korea actually became much, much, much more free (in the inside world) than when e.g. Kim Jung Il or Kim Il Sung ran the country. At least, Kim Jung Eun looks like he is trying to. (He has a pretty open mind.)

It's more of the military (of North Korea) that's keep stopping from e.g. negotiating with the U.S or concentrating on the economy.

He's using his education to write beautiful letters to other world leaders.