Leader Kim Jong Un surveys damage and chastises officials for their failure to prepare and respond to recent torrential rain.

North Korea has said it used military helicopters to evacuate more than 5,000 people from severe flooding in the northwest of the country near the Chinese border.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said leader Kim Jong Un supervised the military rescues on Sunday as residents were brought out of Sinuiju city and Uiju town.

KCNA shared photos of Kim on a windswept airfield with officials, as well as surveying the scale of the floods from the rear passenger window of a black vehicle. Ten helicopters as well as navy and government boats were used in the rescue effort.

Heavy rainfall on Saturday had caused a river on the North Korean-Chinese border to exceed a dangerous level and created “a grave crisis”, the agency said.

Kim reprimanded officials for their failure to prepare and respond to the recent torrential rain, despite previous orders to enhance the country’s measures against natural disasters, it said.

“They, seized with defeatism at combat with nature, do not confidently turn out in the disaster prevention work, only expecting chance from the sky,” Kim said, according to KCNA.

KCNA did not mention any deaths or how much damage the flooding caused.

North Korea has seen record-breaking downpours. Earlier this month, Kaesong City experienced an unprecedented 463mm (18.2 inches) of rain in a single day.

South Korea’s meteorological administration said it was the highest rainfall recorded in North Korea in 29 years.

Floods in North Korea often cause serious damage because of poor drainage, deforestation and dilapidated infrastructure. Typhoons and torrential rains in 2020 were among the difficulties Kim previously said had created “multiple crises” at home, along with draconian pandemic-related restrictions and United Nations sanctions over his nuclear weapons programme.