Google unveils detailed N. Korea map

Weeks after its chairman Eric Schmidt's visit to North Korea, Google has rolled out a detailed map of the isolated state.

 Weeks after its chairman Eric Schmidt's secretive visit to North Korea, Google has rolled out a detailed map of the isolated state.

A two-picture series obtained January 29, 2013 courtesy of Google shows before (L) and after (R) Google Maps images of North Korea

Until now North Korea was pretty much a blank canvas to users of Google's "Map Maker", which creates maps from data that is provided by the public and fact-checked in a similar process to that used by Wikipedia.

"For a long time, one of the largest places with limited map data has been North Korea. But today we are changing that," Jayanth Mysore, a senior product manager at Google Map Maker said in blog posting on Monday.

Mysore said the North Korea section had been completed with the help of a "community of citizen cartographers" working over a period of several years.

"While many people around the globe are fascinated with North Korea, these maps are especially important for the citizens of South Korea who have ancestral connections or still have family living there," he added.

With the two countries still technically at war, decent maps of the North are almost impossible to come by in South Korea.

The Google version offers a detailed map of the capital Pyongyang, showing hospitals, subway stops and schools.

The release of Google's new North Korea map came just weeks after Schmidt returned from a controversial trip to Pyongyang as part of a US "humanitarian" mission.