North Korea vs. South Korea

Vivid Maps
2 min readJun 14, 2020

The Division of Korea started at the end of WWII in 1945. The USSR controlled the North of Korea, and the U.S. held South Korea.

North and South Korea have been divided for more than seventy years. All this time, countries have been developing in opposite directions. Now the result of this development is visible even from space.

Light Pollution

Light pollution can tell a lot about the economic development of North and South Korea.

Images below show a stark nighttime view of North Korea and its more flourishing southern next-door-neighbor.

Heat map of the Korean Peninsula (1992 vs 2008)

Satellite images show the stagnation of the North Korean economy and the rapid economic development of South Korea over the past 15 years.

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