Tokyo: Is this the year that Kim Jong Un finally meets another leader? The young dictator has been giving new meaning to that cliched phrase about North Korea – that it's a "Hermit Kingdom" – by staying at home for three years.

Now North Korean leaders facing the prospect of crimes against humanity don't exactly have a lot of travel options, but Kim has really outdone himself by not going abroad and not meeting a single world leader in the three years since he succeeded his father.

Is this the year Kim Jong Un travels abroad? Credit:Reuters

It has been particularly noteworthy that the "Great Successor" has not met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, given that North Korea and China were once famously said to be "as close as lips and teeth."

The lack of tete-a-tete between the two has been interpreted as the clearest sign that Xi is less than impressed with the 30-something-year-old, who, for one thing, had Jang Song-thaek, China's main conduit with China (and Kim's uncle), executed at the end of 2013.