Google Earth Reveals North Korea's Gulag System

Google Earth Helps Put North Korea Gulag System On Map -- Reuters

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt's visit to North Korea this week has been met with sharp criticism and low expectations, but the global Internet search giant indirectly is helping to make history by revealing one of the reclusive country's darkest secrets, say human rights activists.

Google Earth, the company's popular satellite imagery product, might be the last thing Schmidt will want to showcase for his hosts, because it presents a bird's eye view of many things that secretive North Korea wants to keep hidden.

Human rights activists and bloggers have taken a Google program used mostly for recreation, education and marketing and applied it to map a vast system of dozens of prison camps that span North Korea, a country slightly smaller in area than Greece and home to 23 million people.

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My Comment: I am also skeptical that Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt's visit to North Korea will accomplish anything .... and that in the next few weeks it will be completely forgotten. But Google Earth has been invaluable in revealing North Korea's hidden system of gulags and prison camps, and for this it will be remembered for decades (if not longer).