Typhoon Bavi has forced the evacuation of more than 260,000 people in northeastern China and prompted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to order “maximum vigilance”, as the powerful storm churns towards the Korean Peninsula. Chinese authorities in Liaoning province said the evacuations were under way on Tuesday, with extreme downpours expected to persist. North Korean state media reported that Kim had instructed all officials and workers to take urgent measures to minimise damage.

In Liaoning’s provincial capital Shenyang, floodwaters swept a lighthouse through main roads after it severed a high-voltage power line, according to videos circulated on Chinese social media. Schools and training institutions were ordered to suspend classes, and transport services suffered widespread disruption in cities including Shenyang and Jilin. Chinese meteorologists said Bavi, which formed 13 days ago and at one point covered an area the size of France, made landfall in eastern China on Saturday night yet retained an unusually well-preserved warm core, making it the longest-lasting tropical cyclone in the Asia-Pacific region this year.

North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the typhoon was expected to weaken into a low-pressure system before crossing the country’s central region via the Yellow Sea between Tuesday and Wednesday. Rainfall of 150 to 200 millimetres was forecast for southern provinces, with winds of 10 to 15 metres per second along the west coast. The isolated state, where weak infrastructure and chronic power shortages magnify the impact of natural disasters, has stepped up disaster prevention efforts, according to the Korean Central News Agency. South Korea has already been battered by heavy rain; hundreds of residents in central Chungcheong province were evacuated or stranded by flooding, and a man in his seventies was reported missing after being swept away by a swollen river in Gyeongsang, broadcaster KBS reported.

The storm’s path also stirred diplomatic friction. Japanese news agency Kyodo reported, citing diplomatic sources, that China lodged a protest with Tokyo after Japanese coast guard vessels sought shelter from the typhoon in the Taiwan Strait. Beijing viewed the move as sensitive against a backdrop of sharply deteriorating relations over Taiwan, while Tokyo rejected the protest. The incident underscored how the typhoon’s trajectory intersected with regional geopolitical tensions.

Bavi has since been downgraded to a tropical storm. Meteorologists expect it to release the vast moisture it accumulated over the Pacific as it slows, prolonging the risk of flooding. The full scale of damage and any casualties remains unconfirmed as the storm continues to affect the region.