Limits to watching North Korea from above

Satellite imagery a powerful tool, but one with limitations

In a country going to great lengths to isolate itself, commercial satellite imagery has become a powerful tool used to monitor activities and developments on the ground in North Korea. Scholars, analysts and citizen journalists have been able to map extensive parts of the country, identify infrastructure developments, assess food security and monitor behavior at sites of international concern. But while it enables them to identify and access otherwise unreachable locations, there are inherent limitations to what information can be extracted with certainty, without use of other sources. IMAGERY IN CONJUNCTION One of the key challenges