Google releases detailed map of North Korea

By Park Sae-jin Posted : April 26, 2013, 10:05 Updated : April 26, 2013, 10:05
Google has released a detailed map of North Korea.

The new map labels everything from Pyongyang's subway stops to the country’s several city-sized gulags, as well as its monuments, hotels, hospitals and department stores.

Jayanth Mysore, senior product manager of Google, said that the mapping of that country is not perfect and is still ongoing, asking for more contributors and volunteers to help.

The country remains unknown and is mostly blank for some part. However, airports and highways, and major landmarks are marked. The map of the capital, Pyongyang, offers more details than other parts of the country, including the names of streets and the Kim Il-sung square.

According to a Google blog post, the maps were created by a group of volunteer “citizen cartographers,” through an interface known as "Google Map Maker." The program allows users to contribute and submit their own data, like Wikipedia, which is then fact-checked by other users, and sometimes altered many times over.

Afghanistan and Myanmar were also mapped using the same method, the blog post said.

The volunteers who helped map North Korea have worked from outside of the country since 2009. Using publicly available data, information from existing analog maps, satellite images or other Web-based materials, the volunteers were able to compile the map, it said.

By Keat Min Woo
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