Every night, the vast majority of North Korea goes totally black. South Korea and China burn with a reddish yellow glow, sandwiching North Korea so it looks like a body of water.
The contrast stems from North Korea's lack of electricity. It produces only 739 kilowatt hours per capita, according to the World Bank, while South Korea produces 10,162. The United States produces 13,246 kilowatt hours per capita.
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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured these shots, below, while flying over east Asia. They're some of NASA's most jaw-dropping photos of the Korean peninsula at night.
The only speck of light in North Korea comes from Pyongyang, the city's capital of around 2.5 million people. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station took this photo on Jan. 30, 2014.
The box designates the Yellow Sea, sparkling with fishing boats that give off more light than almost all of North Korea. A satellite grabbed this image on Sept. 24, 2012.
A blizzard covered the Korean peninsula with snow on Jan. 3, 2010. Seoul, the capital of South Korea, received a record 9.8 inches.
Parts of South Korea were blanketed by up to 19 inches of snow during a storm on March 6, 2004.
In this photo, taken on Sept. 4, 2000, the gray areas represent urban parts of Seoul; the green areas denote the rural portions; and the blue areas show the water. South Korea's capital sits just 30 miles from the North Korean border.
This nighttime image, captured on Dec. 25, 2004, shows urban Seoul. The city has a population of around 10 million.
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