You've probably seen it. It’s that one jarring, eerie photo from space where the Korean Peninsula looks like a giant, glowing tooth with a massive black hole where the gums should be. To the south, Seoul is a blinding white explosion of light. To the north, across the border, there’s just... nothing. A void. Except for one tiny, lonely speck of light that is Pyongyang.
That picture of North Korea at night has basically become the defining visual of the 21st century’s most isolated nation. It’s been used in documentaries, shared millions of times on social media, and cited by politicians as the ultimate "before and after" of economic systems. But honestly, the story behind that darkness is way more complicated than just "they don't have lightbulbs."
Why is North Korea so dark?
When you look at a picture of North Korea at night, your brain almost wants to fill in the blanks. Is it a sea? A forest? No, it’s a country of roughly 26 million people living in a literal blackout.
The most famous version of this image was captured by NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) back in 2014, and honestly, not much has changed since then. According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, the light emission from Pyongyang—a city of over 3 million people—is roughly equivalent to a small town in South Korea.
Think about that for a second. An entire capital city puts out the same glow as a random suburb in the south.
The Grid That Time Forgot
The root of the problem isn't just "poverty" as a vague concept. It's a specific, crumbling infrastructure. Most of North Korea's power comes from aging hydroelectric plants and coal.
📖 Related: Seeing Universal Studios Orlando from Above: What the Maps Don't Tell You
- Hydro Dependence: In the summer, they have power. In the winter? The rivers freeze, the water stops flowing, and the lights go out.
- The Soviet Collapse: Back in the 1970s, North Korea actually had a pretty decent grid. But once the Soviet Union collapsed in the 90s and the cheap fuel stopped coming, the system basically ate itself.
- Sanctions: International trade restrictions make it incredibly hard for them to get parts for their power plants.
The "Island" of Pyongyang
If you zoom in on that picture of North Korea at night, you’ll notice Pyongyang looks like a tiny island in the middle of a dark ocean. This isn't an accident. In North Korea, electricity isn't a right; it's a reward for loyalty.
The capital gets the lion's share of whatever juice is left in the grid. Even then, "stable" power in Pyongyang is a relative term. If you’re a tourist staying at the Yanggakdo Hotel, you might see the Juche Tower lit up all night, but the apartment blocks behind it are usually pitch black.
Wait, is it actually pitch black though? Sorta.
Recently, things have started to shift. If you could see a "high-definition" version of that picture of North Korea at night today, you'd see thousands of tiny, flickering orange dots that weren't there ten years ago. These aren't streetlights. They’re cheap, Chinese-made solar panels.
The Solar Revolution
Because the state grid is so unreliable, North Koreans have taken things into their own hands. It's estimated that over 50% of households in some provinces now use small solar setups. They charge a car battery during the day and use it to power a single LED bulb and maybe a small TV at night.
👉 See also: How Long Ago Did the Titanic Sink? The Real Timeline of History's Most Famous Shipwreck
It’s a weird paradox: one of the most closed-off, "backwards" countries on Earth is actually a world leader in household-level renewable energy adoption—simply because they have no other choice.
Is the photo actually "real"?
Some people claim the picture of North Korea at night is a fake or a composite designed for propaganda. While NASA does sometimes process images to make them clearer (adjusting contrast so you can actually see the coastline), the core of the image is 100% scientifically accurate.
Satellites like the Suomi NPP use something called the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). It’s so sensitive it can detect a single highway lamp from orbit. When that satellite passes over the peninsula, the data doesn't lie. South Korea is a 24/7 neon carnival. North Korea is a shadow.
The Human Cost of the Dark
Living in a country that looks like a "black hole" from space isn't just about not being able to read at night. It changes everything about how a society functions.
- Safety: Walking home in a city with zero streetlights is terrifying. People often carry small flashlights or just memorize the cracks in the pavement.
- Education: Kids study by candlelight or the dim glow of a solar-powered LED.
- Economy: You can't run a factory or a cold-storage warehouse without a steady flow of electrons. This is a huge reason why the country struggles with food security—you can't keep things fresh if the fridge turns off every four hours.
What happens next?
As we move deeper into 2026, the picture of North Korea at night is slowly evolving. Kim Jong Un has made "solving the power problem" a major talking point in his recent speeches, leaning heavily into wind and solar projects.
✨ Don't miss: Why the Newport Back Bay Science Center is the Best Kept Secret in Orange County
But until they can fix the massive, national-scale transmission lines that lose half the power before it even reaches a house, that dark spot on the map isn't going away.
Actionable Insights: How to view this data yourself
If you want to see the most recent imagery without relying on a viral meme from 2014, you can actually look at the "live" data.
- NASA Worldview: This is a free tool where you can toggle the "Earth at Night" (VIIRS) layer. You can scroll back through the days and see how the clouds or moon phases change the look of the peninsula.
- Google Earth Engine: If you're tech-savvy, you can pull time-series data to see if the "glow" of Pyongyang is actually getting bigger (spoiler: it is, but very slowly).
- Check the Seasons: If you look at images from February versus August, you’ll see the "Hydro Effect." The country is noticeably darker in the winter when the dams aren't spinning.
The next time you see that picture of North Korea at night, remember it’s not just a map. It’s a snapshot of a survival strategy. It’s a country that has learned to live in the shadows while the rest of the world is staring at a screen.
Practical Step: To truly understand the scale of the disparity, open NASA Worldview and compare the Korean Peninsula to the Nile River in Egypt. Even in a desert, the human footprint is a vibrant line of light. In North Korea, the footprint has been almost entirely erased from the night sky.