It’s chang ma in Korea right now—monsoon season. Every summer, torrential rain clouds park over the Korean peninsula for about month, rendering huddling indoors with soju and some dried anju even more enticing than usual.

There are negative consequences to chang ma too, however (soju headaches aside), including seasonal flooding. And now the North Korean government has increased the danger by reportedly opening the floodgates of a dam that sits a scant 30 miles or so from the South Korean border. The additional water is now flowing into South Korean territory through a river that the two countries share, spurring fears that the river may overrun its banks.