Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong-un is the Supreme Leader of North Korea, having served as the country's de facto head of state since December 17, 2011 (following the death of his father Kim Jong-il). He has been continuously identified by international observers as one of the most-authoritarian heads of government of the early 21st century. He was born Kim Jong-un on January 8, 1983 (although his official North Korean birth-date varies, with some reports suggesting January 8, 1982 or 1984), in Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. His father Kim Jong-il was the second Supreme Leader of North Korea (1994–2011), and his mother Ko Yong-hui was a North Korean opera singer of the Mansudae Art Troupe.

His education at the Liebefeld Steinhölzli school in Köniz, Switzerland (1998–2000, under the reportedly-pseudonymous identity of Pak Un, the son of a North Korean diplomat at the North Korean Embassy in Bern, Switzerland) launched his early-career path. His subsequent return to North Korea and his enrollment at the Kim Il-sung University Military Academy in Pyongyang produced his early-career North Korean military-intelligence training.

His December 17, 2011 succession to North Korean Supreme Leadership — at age 27 (the youngest North Korean Supreme Leader at his succession), upon the December 17, 2011 sudden death of his father Kim Jong-il — produced his ongoing 2011–present North Korean leadership. The December 12, 2013 execution of his uncle Jang Song-thaek (his father's brother-in-law and one of the most-powerful North Korean political figures) — across the December 9, 2013 Workers' Party of Korea Politburo meeting — produced his early-career consolidation of power.

His subsequent 2011–present rule has produced multiple high-profile North Korean political-and-military events — particularly his ongoing 2011–present North Korean nuclear-and-ballistic-missile testing program (which has produced multiple successful nuclear tests in 2013, 2016 (twice), and 2017), the 2018 first North Korean-South Korean DMZ summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the June 12, 2018 first North Korean-American Singapore summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump, and the February 27–28, 2019 second Hanoi summit between Kim and Trump (which ended without an agreement). He has been with Ri Sol-ju since approximately 2009, and the couple has approximately three children.

His name Kim derives from the Korean Kim (the most-common Korean family name, used by approximately 22% of Koreans). Kim was a popular American unisex name through the 1960s and 1970s.