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Google Earth Helps Amateur Spies Map North Korea

Annotated map exposes graves, nuke facilities—and swimming pools

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff

Posted May 22, 2009 8:24 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Spying on North Korea would seem to be a job for intelligence services, but one PhD student at George Mason University has exposed many of the secrets of the insular regime from his home computer. Piecing together clues from news reports, photos, and eyewitnesses, Curtis Melvin and colleagues have annotated Google Earth's map of North Korea with hundreds of labels, documenting everything from mass graves to a waterslide. "It's democratized intelligence," he tells the Wall Street Journal.

North Korea Uncovered has thousands of categories, marking out "nuclear issues" and dams, but also the country's very few restaurants and more than two dozen lighthouses. Despite the regime's extreme secrecy, Melvin and others have mapped out most of the North's transportation network and electrical grid. It's been so successful that Congress has taken notice; as Sen. Sam Brownback recently said, "Google has made a witness of all of us."

An aerial view of a North Korean rocket launch site. Using Google Earth, a network of citizen spies has constructed an annotated map of the secretive nation.
An aerial view of a North Korean rocket launch site. Using Google Earth, a network of citizen spies has constructed an annotated map of the secretive nation.   (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, on Friday, Jan. 23, 2009.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, on Friday, Jan. 23, 2009.   (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service, File)
North Koreans pack the vast Kim Il Sung Square for a rally to celebrate Kim Jong Il's re-election in Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, April 10, 2009.
North Koreans pack the vast Kim Il Sung Square for a rally to celebrate Kim Jong Il's re-election in Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, April 10, 2009.   (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
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Once you start mapping the power plants and substations and wires, you can connect the infrastructure with the elite compounds. And then you see towns that have no power supply at all. - Curtis Melvin, who has led efforts to map North Korea on Google Earth

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 3 comments
Mr.C
May 25, 2009 9:58 AM CDT
Don't call them freaks you asshole. I've been there..used to live there.. they are quite nice & hospitable.
Mad
May 22, 2009 7:15 AM CDT
Spooky stuff that keeps you awake at night
Observer
May 22, 2009 2:07 AM CDT
Funny how a grad student can uncover North Korean state secrets through Google. Yet our billions of dollars of military intelligence may not. The only reason that we have let North Korea survive is because we need an excuse to keep thousands of troops in South Korea to prop up a corrupt regime. No one I know gives a flip about the freaks in Korea. Japan might - too bad let them handle it. I suggest that we remove all of our troops, military bases, naval vessels, submarines, and spy stations from Korea, Okinawa, Guam, Japan, the South China Sea and the Pacific Islands. China is the only authentic threat and I don't see them building several thousand troop carriers to come invade California. Our military is bloated and obsolete. Secretary Gates please come to your senses and cut the DOD in half. The economy will take a hit but it will correct the past 60 years of waste and defense contracting plunder. (We would fry North Korea in minutes if they ever really "acted out".

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North Korea Uncovered

 
North Korea • Google • Internet • Google Earth • map • foreign intelligence

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