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.
