Culture
A New, Highly Detailed Image of North Korea's (Lack of) Electrical Infrastructure
The energy disparity between Pyongyang and its neighbors is clearer than ever in this awesome NASA satellite shot.
Pyongyang has a probable population of more than 3 million people, but you wouldn't know it looking down on the city from space. Only the faintest of glimmers rise from the metropolis, as if all its residents are huddling in the dark for their Supreme Leader's surprise birthday party.
The world has known of North Korea's night-invisibility for a while. On imagery captured by military satellites in the '90s, the country shows up like a gaping hole in the flaming latticework of light that is Japan, South Korea and China. But recent overpasses by NASA's Suomi NPP spacecraft – the one that provided those marvelous shots of nocturnal America – has revealed the country's energy bankruptcy in a level of detail never seen before.