Google nukes Norks

We're not quite sure what's going on down at Google Maps, but the search monolith's cartographical service has decided that the world would be a better place if North Korea were one big blank: North Korea map on Google Maps Satellite imagery is still available, and a search for Pyongyang works fine... Sat image of …

[Anonymous Coward]

To find the Norks on google

Disable Safesearch.

[Anonymous Coward]

Panic abated

...once I realised that this was NOT news that Google image search was going to somehow block pictures of jumper spuds.

[Richard]

Is That a swimming Pool??....

I thought it was a floating tank for his sharks..

all he needs now are the freakin' lasers..

[Chika]

I take it, then...

...that we won't be seeing North Korea Street View any time soon, then.

[Anonymous Coward]

What do they know that we don't...

...yet?

[Anonymous Coward]

Google Car

Who would want to drive that car around Norks??

[Austin Chamberlain]

Diet ...

So he ate shark's fin soup four times a week, sushi once a week and dog soup* on Sundays. Does that mean that even the Dear Leader is only eating six times a week, in solidarity with his starving compatriots?

* Eating dog is quite rare in Korea, according to a non-scientific poll of the three Koreans I know. Two (from Seoul) said "Ew! No!", and one (from the countryside) said "Yeah, so?"

[Anonymous Coward]

May I be the first

To welcome our new dog eating overloads!

[Jimmy Floyd]

Out of the loop

Have I just been away for too long? When did "Nork" stop referring to a mammary gland and start being the definition for a country run by a spiky-haired tit?

[James Dunmore]

If north Korea is blank

he'll be "wonely, so wonely" (team america reference)

[mike wardle]

More info, please

What breed of dog goes into the soup? They cant all taste the same, can they?

[Anonymous Coward]

blank North Korea?

Surely Google does not want to provide to much help for any military operations by

[Jerome]

@ James Dunmore

You know, if you spelt "ronery" right you wouldn't have to point out that it was supposed to be a Team America reference.

[Chris Matchett]

wonely vs ronery

They are both wrong since Koreans don't mix up R and L. That's Japanese and even then R will sound like L and L will sound like L. So 'lonely' ain't a ploblem word.

[Paul]

Get in there El Reg

Surely this calls for a reconstruction of the entire nation... In Playmobil.

[Tim J]

An attempt to stop the US citizen militia attack on NK?

I'm guessing detailed mapping has been removed to stop the somewhat wilder American patriot citizens from planning their own assault on North Korea, given that they probably think Obama's decision not to start World War III (at least not quite yet) shows that he's a lilly-livered yellow-bellied pacifist.

Seriously though, this is a bit odd - why have Google done this? Maybe it's to stop NK officials from easily looking at maps of their own country - but then the satellite views would have to go too. Bizarre.

Paris, because she's always visible via Google... more so when you disable SafeSearch.

[Anonymous Coward]

@out of the loop

My thoughts exactly. I was most disappointed.

That is a nice floating swimming pool, though.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what North Korea will look like...

...when the US nukes it off the map.

[Boris the Cockroach]

You know it could be

Google preparing for next friday, after North Korea foolishly lobs a nuke into Japan/South Korea on Thusday afternoon, and the US/Russians/Chinese blank North Korea from the map Thursday evening.

Then many North Koreans will be able to travel the world as they drift down out of the fallout

PS Wheres the Mushroom cloud icon?

[censored]

Can anyone confirm...

That there did used to be maps? Given western cartographers arent likely to have been welcomed in at any point in the last 50 years, I can't see that the maps wouldve existed in the first place. It's more likely they were never there than that they've been pulled.

Even tourist mecca Cuba is largely blank on the map front beyond place names an major roads.

[Anonymous Coward]

always been like this

I'm pretty sure google maps view of NK has always been like this. People have only started noticing because of the recent events.

[Anonymous Coward]

@wonely vs ronery

Interesting point.

However you failed to take into account that in the aforementioned movie Kim clearly +is+ ronery.

(albeit for comic effect, rather than linguistic verissimilitude)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCmqzrFL26M

[Anonymous Coward]

Was always blank

Hmm, I also think Google Maps has always been blank for North Korea. "Censored" is right about cartographers being most unwelcome: visitors must hand-over any GPS devices to customs on arrival, or risk trial! But you can download older editions of US (1950s) and Soviet military maps (mid 1980s) from lots of places on the web.

(US 1:250,000) http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/korea/ from the

(US 1:50,000) http://www.koreanwar.org/html/korean_war_topo_maps.html

(Soviet 1:200,000) http://poehali.org/maps , Russian interface

The icon is for unwary Western geocachers :-(

[wayne]

riul

The Korean character, riul, is for both R and L sound phonetically.

Check out the word Olympics written in Korean characters. The second character will be riul.

[Big Pete]

In Soviet Russia

The dogs eat you.

[John Freeman]

Nice Pool - is it Olympic?

All it needs is a few lovely party girls out sunning on the deck. I'm sure he can make that happen by throwing a couple bowls of corn flakes to the locals.

[Matthew Ellen]

hahahaha

It looks like a penis.

[Mr Larrington]

Simona Halep

apparently has Norks that are visible from space.

[Anonymous Coward]

No Norks, Just a Big Penis

@Matthew Ellen

Sadly, that was my first thought too. I should get out more.

Paris, because she's familiar with them.