North Koreans are starving to death following stringent Covid restrictions while leader Kim Jong Un has gained weight thanks to luxury snacks and booze.
The hermit kingdom was already the most isolated nation on Earth when COVID-19 first emerged as a global health threat.
But it became even more shut off when it rolled out emergency measures aimed at staving off a public health catastrophe. Now, the move has appeared to trigger an unintended crisis even though Supreme Leader Kim has been stuffin himself.
AI analysis by South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) indicates the 5'6" dictator now weighs around 308lbs.
His lifestyle is a far cry from that of his people after Pyongyang sealed off its borders with neighboring Russia and China, building new fences stretching hundreds of miles.
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It also shut off vital access to food imports, including grain, as well as agricultural materials like fertilizer and machinery to grow crops.
Food shortages in the authoritarian nation are nothing new and the country has long struggled to produce enough for its 26 million people
But the combination of meager production and the slashing of imports means a "devastating tragedy is unfolding", according to Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), an organization that assists North Korean escapees.
Sources inside the closed-off country told the BBC they are terrified of starving to death and fear they could be executed for breaking the strict rules.
One construction worker living near the Chinese border, whose name was changed for his own safety, told the outlet that food supplies have become so low that five people in his village had already died from starvation.
He said: "At first, I was afraid of dying from Covid, but then I began to worry about starving to death."
A market trader from the country's north revealed nearly three quarters of the products in her local market used to come from China. Now, it is completely empty.
She added that she can't earn any income and added that her family has never seen food supplies become so scarce.
The situation has gotten so bad that people from her area have been knocking on her door in a desperate search for food, she said.
Another woman living in Pyongyang, said that a family of three was found dead from starvation in their home.
In December 2021, authorities claimed Kim was healthy and had been eating less "for the sake of the country".
But his weight appeared to rocket back up, despite a food crisis ravaging the isolated nation.
Kim is understood to enjoy stuffing himself with fine foods like caviar and Swiss cheese.
He also likes drinking whiskey and cognac and spent over $30milllion annually on imports of luxury liqueurs from overseas, according to a UN report.
Kwon Tae-jin, a senior economist at the private GS&J Institute in South Korea, told Associated Press in March that Pyongyang is "going backward and returning to the past".
In the mid-1990s, North Korea suffered a crippling famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people, according to estimates.
But Kwon added: "It's like very poor people are starving but the government won't let them die of hunger. Things could continue like that."
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