File photo of US secretary of state John Kerry.
A year into the job US Secretary of State John Kerry has relaunched his Twitter account with the aim of reaching out to make "foreign policy less foreign."
"It only took a year but @StateDept finally let me have my own @twitter account. #JKTweetsAgain," Kerry wrote in his first tweet in some 298 days on his account @JohnKerry.
A few hours later he was trumpeting an event on Thursday, when he will drop the puck at a Washington Capitals game as a way of highlighting the US ice hockey team taking part in the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
"Do love hockey. Look forward to dropping the puck at @washcaps game Thursday. #GoTeamUSA#OlympicSpirit," wrote Kerry, who is a known hockey fan and player.
Kerry had been an avid tweeter during his Senate career, but had dropped the habit once he became the top US diplomat on February 1, 2013, although he would occasionally sign tweets on @StateDept with his initials.
On Monday he had paid tribute to US actor Philip Seymour Hoffman who died at the weekend from a suspected drugs overdose.
"Hard to believe Philip Seymour Hoffman's gone," Kerry tweeted on @StateDept, calling him an "incredible actor (who) really became Capote."
Kerry's spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: "We just determined that it was the right time, a year in, for the secretary to be able to share his own personal voice and engage with people around the world about foreign policy."
The relaunch of his own account "stemmed from the secretary's own desire to talk and engage with a public audience on foreign policy, making foreign policy less foreign," she added.