YoutubeNorth Korea likes to think it can protect itself from any spying eye, well try 250 miles above Earth.
The ultra high-definition video camera, called Iris, is recording unprecedented views of our planet, including over the top secret regimes of North Korea.
UrtheCast sent the 4K camera to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2013 and has been selling data-rich videos to governments and businesses for about $30,000 each, ScienceAlert reports.
On the right you can see the white-stoned ‘mausoleum in which North Korean leaders are laid to rest’:
Wherever the $100 billion ISS flies, Iris records images and videos of Earth at a resolution of about one metre per pixel.
On 30 May this year, the camera captured shots of North Korea’s capital Pyongyang, and the footage was released on Thursday.
An UrtheCast engineer even saw ‘the shadow of a person walking within the grounds’ of the mausoleum.
It’s pretty scary the level of detail that commercial satellites can pick up.
In this zoomed in image, you can see a person turning a corner:
Many satellites can see a mobile phone in your hand from space, but the US government limits the resolution of images that can be sold.
In an incredibly invasive campaign, companies are lobbying the US government to permit them to sell those ultra-detailed images to anyone who wants to buy them, so long as they’re cleared as non-threatening to national security.
Nowhere is safe!
