Mick Hartley

North Korea's North Hamgyong Province has suffered devastating floods, with an estimated 70,000 homeless and 600,000 in need.

[Photos Kim Kwang Hyon/AP]

Casualty figures are rumoured to be high – certainly higher than they need be:

During the severe flooding in North Hamgyong Province in late August, Daily NK has learned that a group of teachers and students in a school near Hoeryong died in the rapid currents while trying to save idolized material and portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

"At Songhak High School located near Hoeryong, 7 teachers – including the vice-principal, and 6 students lost their lives while attempting to recover portraits and oil paintings out of the flood waters," a source in North Hamgyong Province reported to Daily NK on October 5.

"The vice-principal, fearing punishment for not properly protecting the idolization material, declared an emergency during the flood, and the teachers and students mobilized for the recovery task ended up losing their lives."

In North Korea, citizens who prioritize saving portraits of the Kim family are praised as heroes, while those who focus on the rescue of people or household goods are subject to ideological criticism. The state mandates a dogged adherence to the notion of "serving the leader first with eagerness (決死擁衛)," which essentially orders people to place the safety of portraits of the North Korean leaders before their own family.

Any failure to save portraits is recorded on an individual’s official records, and stays with them for life. There are also political penalties such as being expelled from the Party. In this way, the regime enforces loyalty by directly threatening people’s livelihoods and social standing. 

For Kim Jong-un, meanwhile, it's business as usual:

Kim Jong Un has yet to visit flood-hit areas of North Korea, but he did appear at a souvenir factory to provide field guidance, according to state media.

Pyongyang's official news agency KCNA reported Friday that Kim visited the Mangyongdae Revolutionary Souvenir Factory and told workers that "their work is important."….

The North Korean leader has yet to visit the flood-hit area of the country, where a cholera epidemic was reportedly spreading in the absence of safe drinking water.