North Kore­an leader Kim Jong-un has vis­it­ed a rice-grow­ing area dev­as­tat­ed by a typhoon on Thurs­day, as the reclu­sive coun­try reels from back-to-back nat­ur­al and man­made cat­a­stro­phes. Pho­tos released by state media of the author­i­tar­i­an leader inspect­ing fields along­side mask-wear­ing offi­cials appeared to be framed to con­vey his benev­o­lence as cit­i­zens strug­gle to cope with the impact of severe mon­soon flood­ing, and the eco­nom­ic toll of the pan­dem­ic and ongo­ing glob­al sanc­tions. Typhoon Bavi slammed into the country’s south­west­ern province of Hwang­hae, deal­ing a dam­ag­ing blow to its corn stalks, rice pad­dies and oth­er crops, and rais­ing fears of increased hunger among an already mal­nour­ished pop­u­la­tion. Ten mil­lion peo­ple are report­ed by the Unit­ed Nations to be suf­fer­ing from food inse­cu­ri­ty, liv­ing from har­vest to har­vest. The coun­try also suf­fers from years of neglect­ed infra­struc­ture, which exac­er­bates the effects of nat­ur­al disasters.