North Korean leader Kim Jong Un marks his 36th birthday on Wednesday, if the U.S. government is anything to go by. This is a remarkably young age for a man leading a nation of 25 million people -- it also makes him the world's third-youngest person to lead a government, and the youngest to possess an arsenal of missiles and nuclear weapons.

State media on Wednesday featured no mention of the auspicious day, with ruling party daily the Rodong Sinmun instead leading with an editorial extolling the outcomes of a recent party plenum. It is also conspicuously absent from officially-issued North Korean calendars.