2011-04-25

Putting North Korea on the map

If you've happened to pan over northeastern Asia in Google Maps, you may have noticed something odd. The roads, water bodies, markers, and labels that cover the extent of South Korea, Japan, Russia, and China are curiously absent over North Korea.

North Korea blank on Google Maps

In searching for an explanation I've found a lot of speculation, mostly about North Korea's authoritarian government, the country being cut-off from the West, the poverty, and so on. But these factors shouldn't necessarily prevent Google from mapping features in the DPRK, especially since high-resolution satellite imagery is available on Google Maps. After all, Bing has labeled the most basic features. Instead, the [partial?] answer seems to be that Google simply hasn't published the data. From a topic on the Google Maps Help Forum: 

"We never launched coverage in some countries because we simply weren't satisfied with the map data we had available. We're constantly searching for the best map data we can find, and sometimes will delay launching coverage in a country if we think we can get more comprehensive data." 

There's some good news, though, for those who want to browse detailed maps of North Korea. Google Map Maker has opened up the DPRK for contribution (along with 187 other countries as of this writing) and it looks like there is already a lot of detail.

In contrast to Google Maps, North Korea has more features in Map Maker


Features added to Google Map Maker in Pyongyang


Content from Map Maker may eventually lead to a satisfactory map of North Korea and publication on Google Maps. Until then, Map Maker, satellite view on Google Maps, and Panoramio photos on Google Earth are pretty good resources. Also have a look at the massive amount of data available from the North Korea Uncovered project. There you can download a KML file with layers for infrastructure, palaces, artillery, and many other interesting sites.There was a WSJ article about the project.

Together, all of these resources should help take some of the mystery out of the blank spot on the map.