Kim Jong Un hasn't traveled outside the country since becoming its leader at the end of 2011. In those six years, he's met only a handful of outsiders. They include the usual cast of communist-linked characters — Chinese, Cubans, Syrians — as well as the less-expected delegations led by American former basketball star Dennis Rodman.
Otherwise, there's no human intelligence on Kim and his cronies. Just state propaganda and satellite photos and rumors. Lots of rumors.
But Michael Madden has become, as he puts it, an "accidental expert" on the men, and the occasional woman, who run the world's most isolated country.