(CNN) -- Give an astronaut on the International Space Station a digital camera and you're bound to end up with some astounding images -- especially if they're flying above North Korea.
When the space station
passed over East Asia one night recently, a member of NASA's Expedition
38 crew took a series of photographs that show just how off-the-grid the
Hermit Kingdom really is.
While thriving cities and
major roads are seen glowing across South Korea and China, the
landscape between the two countries is so dark that it's difficult to
tell where the sea ends and North Korea begins.
Pyongyang "appears like a small island," says NASA, noting that the light emission from the North Korean capital is equivalent to the smaller towns of its neighbor to the south.
The space agency, which turned the images into a timelapse video, says city lights at night are a good indicator of the relative affluence of cities.
Looking at the images,
it's hardly a surprise that energy use is dramatically different on
either side of the 38th parallel. In South Korea, per capita power
consumption is 10,162 kilowatt hours while in North Korea the figure is
739 kilowatt hours, according to World Bank data.
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