The young Kim Jong Un may be the public face of isolated North Korea, but the man who represents Pyongyang on the international stage is an urbane 75-year-old who lived under an assumed name for decades and survived a vicious purge over a year ago.
Now North Korea's foreign minister and one of the most powerful men in the regime, Ri Su Yong was rumored to have been executed along with his mentor, Jang Song Thaek, Kim's uncle, and several of his aides.
But the French-speaking Ri, who acted as Kim's surrogate father when he was at a Swiss school, is touring international capitals again, defending his country's nuclear capability and trying to parry allegations of human rights abuses.