Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong-un is the third generation of the Kim dynasty that has ruled North Korea since 1948, the grandson of founder Kim Il-sung and son of Kim Jong-il. Educated for several years in Switzerland under a pseudonym, he was virtually unknown to the outside world before being designated as successor shortly before his father's death in December 2011. He consolidated power swiftly through purges that included the public 2013 execution of his uncle Jang Song-thaek and the 2017 assassination of his exiled half-brother Kim Jong-nam in Kuala Lumpur airport using VX nerve agent.

Under his rule North Korea has dramatically accelerated its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, conducting four of the country's six nuclear tests and demonstrating intercontinental-range missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. He held three unprecedented summits with President Donald Trump (Singapore 2018, Hanoi 2019, DMZ 2019), met Xi Jinping multiple times, and in 2024 signed a mutual-defense treaty with Vladimir Putin while supplying artillery and troops to support Russia's war in Ukraine. The country remains under sweeping international sanctions and is widely regarded as the world's most repressive totalitarian state.