What U.S. Satellite Images Are Revealing In North Korea

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Undercover From Overhead In North Korea -- Joel S. Wit and Jenny Town, Foriegn Policy

Why satellite images -- not smuggled videos -- reveal the real dangers lurking inside Kim Jong Un’s nuclear hermit kingdom.

And here we are again: inside the mysterious North Korea, the hermit kingdom that is not so hermit after all.

On Jan. 14, PBS's Frontline featured the "Secret State of North Korea," a documentary that used undercover footage to "shine light on the hidden world of the North Korean people." And it did just that -- taking viewers on the streets to meet the country's poorest and most forgotten.

Though the street images can give us a glimpse of everyday life in North Korea, the satellite images -- orbiting 250,000 feet over Pyongyang's secret installations, where weapons of mass destruction are developed -- tell us a great deal more about what Pyongyang has up its sleeve.

From research and development facilities to nuclear and missile test sites to plutonium production and uranium enrichment facilities, North Korea's WMD programs demonstrate a five-decade-long, multibillion-dollar commitment comparable to the Manhattan Project. While some pundits argue that the North's program is a bluff designed to squeeze assistance out of the international community, even the most accomplished con artist would find it impossible to fake such a large-scale effort. Moreover, the North may not want to hide everything: Its emerging program has a security mission -- as well as a political one -- to signal to the outside world that it is a force to be reckoned with.

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My Comment: A very disturbing read.