South Korean recognized as person with world's highest IQ

South Korean Kim Young-hoon was recognized as the person with the highest IQ in history, scoring 276 at the World Memory Championships, according to the organizer of the competition, the World Mind Sports Council, on Thursday.

“The World Mind Sports Council hereby recognizes YoungHoon Kim from South Korea as the person with the highest IQ in the world and congratulates him,” the event organizer said.

Before Kim, Chinese-Australian professor Terence Tao held the title of the person with the highest IQ in the world, with an IQ of 230.

"I want to research and help improve people's brainpower around the world using my talents in the future," Kim said after the announcement.

The 35-year-old graduate of Yonsei University in Seoul is the only Korean member of both the Mega Society and the Giga Society which only accepts members with exceptionally high IQs.

The World Memory Championships is an international event where pre-selected highly intelligent individuals compete in a tournament-style competition to determine the final winner. In the process, the participants' IQs are also comprehensively evaluated.

Kim is the founder of the United Sigma Intelligence Association, which he explains is a non-profit group of more than 100 intelligent individuals around the world, including professors from top universities Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

The World Mind Sports Council, a global organization that operates world-class brain championships, was founded by mind mapping creator Tony Buzan. In addition to the World Memory Championships, it also holds the World Speed Reading Championships and the World Mind Mapping Championships.