Let’s look at the three sources Kim appeals to the most as verification of his “World’s Highest IQ Holder” claim.

FIRST - “OFFICIAL WORLD RECORD”

Kim leads his defense by referring to a company called OFFICIAL WORLD RECORD.

What kind of outfit is “Official World Record”? Here’s their website.

Why OWR – Official World Record

Note that OFFICIAL WORLD RECORD is not in the IQ or intelligence business. OWR is a certificate mill that invites you to present to them your very own world record, which they will “investigate” and determine “within 48 hours” whether you qualify to purchase one of their certificates or trophies. They will then help you market yourself as a world record holder because companies “obtaining a world record … become more powerful at their advertising campaigns or of a product in concrete;…” (Sic).

(Peruse their website and you will also find them to be embarrassingly amateurish, and at times incoherent.)

This is the authority that Kim Young Hoon leads his defense with, and that the religious press repeatedly uses as “verification” of his claim.

SECOND - “WORLD MEMORY CHAMPIONSHIPS”

WMC is the group Kim refers to immediately after Official World Record. It was founded in 1991 by Raymond Keene and the late Tony Buzan. WMC hosts annual competitions involving memorization of binary digits, playing cards, random word lists, historic dates, and more. Kim Young Hoon has a certificate from WMC that he says confirms his world’s highest IQ claim. See the certificate here. It looks official and impressive.

I contacted the organization’s co-founder, Raymond Keene, to inquire about Kim’s use of WMC in support of his world’s highest IQ claim. Mr. Keene told me (via email) that, per his recollection, WMC has not held an IQ event since 1999. I checked. The WMC is not an IQ organization. (The website for their 2024 World Championships in Istanbul shows ten challenge categories. There is nothing for IQ.) But why did Keene sign that IQ certificate? And what does it actually say? The certificate does not say that WMC tested Kim and concluded that he had the world’s highest IQ. To the contrary, it says that Kim “has been certified as the highest IQ holder by various relevant bodies” and that WMC has “confirmed” the same.

So WMC did not test Kim and confirm his IQ claim. It merely confirmed that some unnamed groups certified Kim. WMC has not verified Kim’s claim, nor would they be competent to do so.

But, again, why did Raymond Keene sign that certificate? Here’s what he wrote to me.

His first response: “I did not object to his IQ claims since it did not seem to me that it was clear that he might be referring to our organisation which has existed for a quarter of a century.”

His second response: “It wasn’t clear to me that he had credited us with the IQ record.”

His third response

“I will Challenge (sic) him to perform during WMC.”

This is far from the strong endorsement that Kim (with religious press in tow) has so prominently featured in his promo materials. There is a vast difference between “I did not object to his IQ claim” and “I have knowledge of the testing Mr. Kim underwent, and expertise to evaluate the test results in themselves and in comparison to test scores of other individuals, and I hereby endorse his claim to having the world’s highest IQ.”

Raymond Keene gave Kim nothing of the sort. To make matters worse, Mr. Keene failed to answer my questions about the certificate and whether Mr. Kim is misusing it.

Kim’s widely-shared “Certificate of Title” from the “World Memory Championships” is a deceptive dud.

THIRD - NOBODY ACTUALLY SUPPORTS KIM YOUNG HOON’S CLAIM

It is highly significant that Kim Young Hoon is unable to obtain support from experts in IQ measurements and protocols. Instead, he bombards the public with names of small and sketchy organizations that have “verified” his claim.

But in July of 2025, Kim began to feel the heat on social media. He posted several desperate comments at X about “persecution” by “atheists” (“for my Christian faith.”)

He also appealed to his fans for support. The way things were going, Kim needed a respected intellectual with the relevant expertise to endorse him.

He got something close. On or about July 8 he posted a detailed letter from a certain Tom Chittenden. The letter was glowingly favorable to Mr. Kim. But there was a serious problem with it.

Tom Chittenden is a real scholar, with two academic doctorates and significant experience in the IQ and intelligence field. He also appears to be a close Kim ally. Dr. Chittenden serves as president of Mr. Kim’s “Giga Society,” which, despite having very little content at its website, dedicated a whole page to Mr. Kim’s IQ claim. The website gives the very strong impression that Dr. Chittenden endorses Kim’s highest IQ claim. https://gigasociety.net/worlds-highest-iq-276/

Tom Chittenden, thus, seems the perfect ally to come to Kim’s rescue. And it seemed he did. Kim posted the Chittenden letter on X, then re-posted it, and re-re-posted it. But, for all his praise of Mr. Kim, Dr. Chittenden refused to give Kim the one thing he needed, an endorsement of his world’s highest IQ claim. Dr. Chittenden masterfully avoided including that in his letter. But only a careful reader would notice..

This did not stop Kim from posting along with the Chittenden letter an AI paragraph that mischaracterized the letter as endorsing Kim’s claim.

Why did Tom Chittenden not deliver for his ally, Kim Young Hoon? The only reason I can think of is that Dr. Chittenden did not want to lie for Kim Young Hoon. Are there other reasons?

We have already seen how Raymond Keene pretended to support Kim with enthusiasm, but actually does not.

As it stands, Kim Young Hoon has nobody in his corner who is qualified and recognized as having the authority to confer the title of “World’s Highest IQ Record Holder” status on him. This is the bothersome fact that lies beneath the flood of organizations that Kim constantly diverts our attention to.