WORLD

North Korea’s isolation is visible in new satellite photos that show the energy-bankrupt country at night. (National Geographic News)

Use our resources to see North Korea’s dark nights.

Discussion Ideas

• Take a look at our MapMaker Interactive, with the “Lights at Night” layer activated. The bright lights of South Korea and the heavily industrialized area ringing the Bohai Sea, China, (sometimes called the Gulf of Chihli, as it is on our map) sandwich the dark country of North Korea. There are vast areas in China’s interior that are equally as dark as North Korea, however. Why do you think these areas are not mentioned, while North Korea’s lack of electricity has an entire article devoted to it? Turning on the “Population Density” map layer (found in the “Human Systems – Population and Culture” accordion panel) may give you some help.
  • The dark areas in China’s interior are very sparsely populated. The region doesn’t have a big electricity footprint because very few people or businesses are there to use electricity.
  • Population density is pretty evenly distributed throughout the entire Korean Peninsula, including China, North Korea, and South Korea. North Korea has a large population of citizens and businesses, but little electricity to distribute. Read more about this fascinating disparity in this blog entry, or this one, both of which give you a better idea about how to navigate the MapMaker Interactive.

• Keep the “Lights at Night” and “Population Density” layers active. Zoom out (-) from North Korea, so you can see Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia. Play with the transparency on both map layers. What other regions have dense populations and little electricity or electrical infrastructure?
  • Here are a few regions: Philippines; Vietnam; Laos; Cambodia; Sri Lanka; the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in India and Bangladesh; the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya; Madagascar; and Yemen, on the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

• Why do you think these regions might be experiencing energy shortages or a lack of infrastructure? What other map layers might help display these reasons?
  • Most of these regions exist in developing countries that lack the money to create infrastructure (a power grid, delivery systems, reliable sources of electricity) necessary for a sustainable electrical footprint.
    • A map layer that might help show this economic disparity might be a nation or region’s per-capita gross domestic product (GDP). This information is easily accessed in the CIA World Factbook.
  • Many of these regions are experiencing social or political conflict. Protecting a country’s borders, citizens, and political infrastructure might be prioritized over developing a power grid.