Juliette Morillot told France’s Europe 1 radio the despot is “far from crazy” but warned the family still poses a threat to the world.
Mrs Morillot said: “The ruling Kim family is far from crazy. In truth, they are all perfectly rational and well-educated.
“When I say the Kims aren’t crazy, I’m not saying they’re not dangerous.”
While the international community was busy making fun of Kim and his predecessors, and dismissing them as irrational figureheads, North Koreans were busy expanding their nuclear arsenal, Mrs Morillot said.
She added: “The regime is incredibly easy to caricature. But the international community spent so much time ridiculing the communist state and its leaders that it buried its head in the sand… And now it has to figure out how to deal with a nuclear-armed North Korea.”
US president Donald Trump, she continued, is less predictable than his North Korean counterpart.
Mrs Morillot said: “Mr Trump is irrational, while Mr Kim has always presented an implacable face to the world. The Kims would have been ousted a long time ago if they were actually crazy. Mr Kim isn’t on a suicide mission. I repeat, the Kims are all rational.
“North Koreans truly believe the country is under the imminent threat of invasion by the US, and in their eyes, Mr Kim is a national hero and the only person able to ward off that threat.”
She added that Mr Trump’s recent threat to attack North Korea would only serve to “reinforce” anti-American sentiment there.
Mr Trump, who has been embroiled in an ever-escalating war of words with the rogue nation for months, said during a speech to the United Nations general assembly on Tuesday that the US would “totally destroy” North Korea if it continued to threaten the US, adding that Mr Kim, whom he referred to as “Rocket man” was “on a suicide mission for himself and his regime”.
The UN Security Council agreed earlier this month to tighten sanctions on North Korea, banning its textile exports and capping fuel supplies, after the regime launched its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, ignoring international opposition to its nuclear weapons programme.