--- title: North Korea, Seen From Space, Is Sea of Darkness description: The lights are off, but everyone's home canonical: https://time.com/9548/even-from-space-north-korea-looks-like-a-dark-blotch-of-despair/ author: Per Liljas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-02-25T06:15:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:28:48.671Z article:section: World og:title: North Korea, Seen From Space, Is Sea of Darkness og:description: The lights are off, but everyone's home og:url: https://time.com/9548/even-from-space-north-korea-looks-like-a-dark-blotch-of-despair/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc44bad20c850dcdc/6986830155a8595a21a7f716/rtr3fozz.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A NASA image released on February 24, 2014 shows a photo taken by the Expedition 38 crew aboard the International Space Station on January 30, 2014 of the night view of the Korean Peninsula. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: North Korea, Seen From Space, Is Sea of Darkness twitter:description: The lights are off, but everyone's home twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc44bad20c850dcdc/6986830155a8595a21a7f716/rtr3fozz.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Even From Space, North Korea Looks Like a Dark Blotch of Despair by [Per Liljas](/author/per-liljas/) ## Per Liljas Feb 25, 2014 6:15 AM CUT  NASA-JSC / Reuters by [Per Liljas](/author/per-liljas/) ## Per Liljas Feb 25, 2014 6:15 AM CUT The North Korean capital, Pyongyang, is the one point of light in the middle of a desolate sea of darkness between South Korea, on the right, and China, on the left, in this recent image taken from the International Space Station. The upside: lack of light pollution means that North Koreans must have amazing views of the stars. The downside: pretty much everything else. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/9548/even-from-space-north-korea-looks-like-a-dark-blotch-of-despair/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/9548/even-from-space-north-korea-looks-like-a-dark-blotch-of-despair/"},"headline":"Even From Space, North Korea Looks Like a Dark Blotch of Despair","datePublished":"2014-02-25T06:15:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:28:48.671Z","description":"The lights are off, but everyone's home","url":"https://time.com/9548/even-from-space-north-korea-looks-like-a-dark-blotch-of-despair/","keywords":["North Korea","Space","Electricity"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc44bad20c850dcdc/6986830155a8595a21a7f716/rtr3fozz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Per Liljas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/per-liljas/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc44bad20c850dcdc/6986830155a8595a21a7f716/rtr3fozz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A NASA image released on February 24, 2014 shows a photo taken by the Expedition 38 crew aboard the International Space Station on January 30, 2014 of the night view of the Korean Peninsula.","caption":"A NASA image released on February 24, 2014 shows a photo taken by the Expedition 38 crew aboard the International Space Station on January 30, 2014 of the night view of the Korean Peninsula.","creditText":"NASA-JSC / Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/9548/even-from-space-north-korea-looks-like-a-dark-blotch-of-despair/","name":"Even From Space, North Korea Looks Like a Dark Blotch of Despair"}}]}] ```