North Korea is in the middle of a drought that threatens to leave crops starved of water. But this dry spell also comes in the aftermath of heavy rains and destructive flooding, and as the government imposes public health restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This is the DPRK’s new normal in the climate change era.

The erratic swing between floods and drought is consistent with a larger trend of climatic variability and extremes for the Korean Peninsula, turbo-charged by climate change. As floods become more common in the DPRK, the frequency and duration of