Usually, Kim Jong Un makes around ten or so visits each month, to places such as fish farms, missile sites, barracks, schools, and factories, and on these occasions, he gives guidance, instructions, or reflections which are then carried by state media. As an observer it becomes possible over time, to an extent, to glean each month a sense of policy development and personnel changes within the DPRK.

August 2017 was a little different from normal because Kim Jong Un made just four visits, each to a performance of high-level military threat against the U.S. and its allies