North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whose life still largely remains a mystery, has boosted his public appearances as a statesman since last year as part of a diplomatic offensive to ease crippling sanctions on his country.

After the passage of more than six years since inheriting power following the death of his father Kim Jong Il in late 2011, the North Korean leader, who is in his mid-30s, made a surprise visit to Beijing in March 2018 in his first foreign trip as leader to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Kim's summits with South Korean President Moon Jae In and U.S. President Donald Trump later that year were broadcast live around the world. Kim's smiling visage has softened the public's perception of him as being an irrational and oppressive dictator.

Earlier this year, Kim held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok.

Before its diplomatic overtures began, North Korea, under Kim's leadership, had conducted a fast-paced string of nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

When Kim was still exchanging personal insults and threats of war with Trump in 2017, the North Korean leader warned that he would "definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire."

Kim, meanwhile, has shown a ruthless side. His estranged half-brother Kim Jong Nam was assassinated in 2017 with the lethal nerve agent VX at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. North Korean agents are widely suspected of being behind the audacious attack.

During his official duties, the North Korean leader, the youngest of Kim Jong Il's three sons, has often been seen with a cigarette dangling from his fingers.

He is an avid basketball fan, famously striking up a friendship with flamboyant former National Basketball Association star Dennis Rodman, who has visited him in Pyongyang multiple times.

Kim, born on Jan. 8, 1983 or 1984, attended an international school in Switzerland and studied at Kim Il Sung Military University, an elite educational institution in Pyongyang named after his grandfather, North Korea's founder.

His mother, Ko Yong Hui, was a Korean-Japanese born in Osaka. Ko, Kim Jong Il's third wife, is believed to have died in 2004.

Kim reportedly has three children with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, a former singer and cheerleader, according to South Korea's spy agency, including a daughter who was held by Rodman in 2013 when she was a baby.