Kim Jong Un will take no blame for North Korea’s floods

The sight of a grimacing Kim Jong Un on board an inflatable rubber dinghy is not what one would expect from the leader of a country which has repeatedly threatened to ‘annihilate’ the United States. As floods ravage across provinces along North Korea’s border with China, the North Korean leader has leapt upon the occasion to berate his officials for mismanagement, reinforce state ideology, and emphasise that under the protection of the Supreme Leader, all will – eventually – be well. 

While the devastating flash floods of July and early August primarily affected areas in the northern part of the country, the consequences have been felt across the hermit kingdom. North Korean state media has been reluctant to disclose the scale of the damage and causalities, merely saying how at least 7,500 acres of agricultural fields were affected, and that the army had rescued over 4,000 displaced people from flood-stricken northern provinces.