North Korean leader Kim Jong Un plants his feet in the mud, rides a cramped rubber rescue boat on a swollen river and directs military helicopters unloading evacuees on a rain-soaked runway.
North Korea’s propaganda apparatus is breaking new ground in the way it has portrayed him battling alongside ordinary citizens as he tackles a flood emergency that has devastated a northwestern area of the country and is estimated to have caused a "considerable human toll,” according to the South Korean ministry that manages relations with the neighbor.
That discrepancy could mean his government’s trying to shift the blame for a disaster that may be bigger than reported.