THIS satellite image really does show what a dead end North Korea is - especially if you try driving into the hermit nation by car.

Should you want to nip across the 3-kilometre bridge from the Chinese border city of Dandong, you will find yourself driving off the end of it when you arrive in North Korea.

13 The motorway suddenly ends at the North Korean side Credit: Google Earth

13 Zoom out and you can see just how bonkers it looks Credit: Google Maps

The extraordinary view on Google Earth shows the bridge spanning the Yalu River from the Chinese city of Dandong –only to abruptly end in the neighbouring country's paddy fields.

In a bid to link up with its historic ally, Beijing sank more than £200 million into the bridge.

But the opening of this marvel of Chinese engineering - which would have undoubtedly seen ruler Kim Jong-un strike his signature pointing pose - has been permanently postponed.

13 The bridge was supposed to bring China and North Korea together Credit: The Asahi Shimbun

It is unclear why the road ends in North Korea and both Beijing and Pyongyang have made no official comment.

Tellingly, you can see the Chinese side packed with offices, factories and loads of restaurants.

Yet over on the North Korean side - which is struggling with a famine while its waist-busting ruler balloons to 20 stone - everything seems eerily quiet.

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In fact seems as if everyone has vanished.

Creepy satellite photographs show unfinished buildings and deserted areas all over the secretive country where very few foreigners are allowed to roam at will.

In fact the regime is keen to keep outsiders and their prying eyes out.

This may explain why it decided not to finish the bridge.

13 It would seem Kim Jong-un never misses a propaganda opportunity

Proving just how paranoid crazy Kim has become about his kingdom being photographed from space, he has ordered propaganda should be viewed from orbit.

New satellite imagery of Ryanggang Province shows giant letters forming a slogan that can only be seen from above.

It reads “Long live military-first Korea and General Kim Jong-un!”

13 Taepo-dong missile launch facility where Kim has been launching his big rockets Credit: Reuters

Images also show ballistic missile launch sites which Kim hopes one day will carry nuclear warheads all the way to the west coast of the USA.

The double-chinned despot carried out the fifth and biggest nuke test and has boasted about becoming nuclear power.

But night time images taken recently by US space agency NASA suggest the country is far from a military superpower.

13 NASA images of North Korea show the capital is lit up while China to its north and South Korea are blazing with light Credit: NASA

Images show the country is mostly shrouded in darkness while its capitalist neighbour, South Korea, is lit up brightly like most of the world.

But despite toying with nuclear apocalypse, tubby Jong-un has been on a mission to make sure his subjects are provided with holiday and leisure destinations.

The most striking of all is the Ryugyong Hotel in the capital city of Pyongyang - dubbed the “worst building in the history of mankind”.

13 The Ryugyong Hotel skyscraper in Pyongyang has not won plaudits for its appearance Credit: Google Earth

Work started on the alarming looking 105-storey pyramid shaped building 20 years ago.

It is still not finished.

But with a famine on and an expensive nuclear weapons programme under way, it is not expected to be completed anytime soon.

13 The smog engulfed 105 storey Ryugyong Hotel has yet to welcome guests some two decades after work started on it Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd

Elsewhere in the city is Munsu Water Park which fun-loving Kim personally ordered should be built.

When it was opened two years ago, an official crowed: "The water park is the edifice built thanks to Korean Peoples' Army service personnel’s spirit of devotedly carrying out any project.

“And it shows their fighting traits because they are ready to flatten even a high mountain at a go in hearty response to the order of the supreme commander.”

13 The Munsu Water Park in Pyongyang's opening day Credit: Reuters

13 Munsu Water Park, also known as Rungna People's Pleasure Ground, although there seems to be no-one about Credit: Google Streetview

But when viewed from above no-one seems to be enjoying its slides and pools.

Like everywhere else there not a soul about.

The same goes for another of Kim’s pet projects in mountainous Masikryong.

Journalists who have visited have reported how the hotel is like the one out of The Shining and that there were no other guests.

13 Kim having a whale of a time on a ski lift at the country's first alpine resort, but did he have to queue for the ski-lift? Credit: YONHAP/RODONG SINMUN

13 The resort seems pretty deserted Credit: Google Earth

Viewed from Google Earth and it seems business has not picked up since, although the image was taken out of season.

But more sinister are the remote prisons that can be seen by Google Earth which have been likened to Nazi concentration camps or Soviet style gulags.

In the middle of nowhere, human rights organisations say there is no way people escape and many perish.

13 The notorious Camp 22 at Haengyong where torture and starvation go hand-in-hand Credit: Reuters

Amnesty International director Kate Allen said: “Amnesty believes these camps have been in operation for approaching 60 years, yet only three people have ever been known to have escaped and a massive 40 per cent will die of malnutrition.

“Every former inmate Amnesty spoke to had witnessed at least one public execution.

“The North Korean authorities have also been known to use a horrific 4ft by 4ft ‘torture cell’, where inmates can neither stand nor lie down.”