In years past, resident humanitarian staff and tourists would visit far-flung rural areas of North Korea on a semi-regular basis, providing updates on goings-on outside the capital and producing photos of daily life.

Since the start of the pandemic, the volume of unofficial information and photos coming out of the DPRK has shrunk considerably. Next to nothing has emerged from the countryside in particular since Jan. 2020, and outside observers have had to rely almost entirely on satellite imagery and state media to understand the situation on the ground, even as the country dealt with a “food crisis