Exploded Building in North Korea Spotted On Google Maps
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An eagle-eyed Google Maps enthusiast has spotted an exploded building in North Korea. They shared their findings in a sub-Reddit, where others share their weird findings from Google Maps.
A Reddit user with the name d2suarez found aerial images of a blue and green building in North Korea with the windows blown out and glass on the ground around it.
The four-storey office block was spotted in the city of Kaesŏng, which is just a short distance from the border with South Korea.
Within the comments on the post, one joked: "Might wanna refrain from posting the words 'I was looking at satellite images of NK' on the internet."
After some investigation, the post's creator solved the mystery and discovered it is actually what it looks like.
Turns out the building was the Korean Inter-Joint Liaison Office. Established in 2018 as part of a number of reconciliation efforts, the office was responsible for helping communication between North and South korea.
There's been high tensions between the two Koreas for years and in 2020, North Korea blew up this building during a period of high tension, the BBC reports. It's understood that nobody was hurt or killed by this explosion.
The BBC quoted a statement made by South Korea at the time, which warned that it would "respond strongly" if the North "continues to worsen the situation.The destruction of the office, the statement continued, "abandons the hopes of everyone who wanted the development of inter-Korean relations and peace settlement in the Korean Peninsula".
"The government makes it clear that all responsibility of this situation lies in the North."
North Korea is a one-party state ruled by Kim Jong-un. The state was established following unrest after the Second World War and throughout the Cold War, it was an ally of the Soviet Union. South Korea, on the other hand, was backed by the USA during the Cold War, and is a democracy.
The Korean War, which was a civil war between the Soviet-backed North and US-backed South, took place between 1950-53.
In 2019, the then US President Donald Trump became the first US sitting president to step foot inside North Korea. It was thought after this historic meeting, the North Korean leader would reconsider the state's nuclear arms programme. But unfortunately not.
So there you have it, a history lesson inspired by a Google Maps find.
Featured Image Credit: Google Maps
Topics: Google Maps, North Korea
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