MapPorn
World Map Used in North Korea
It takes several cartographical liberties, most notably showing the entire Korean peninsula as a single unified country.
Other interesting aspects of the include:
It doesn’t seem to use a standard or consistent map projection. It omits the Caspian Sea but does include the Great Lakes. The Suez Canal looks massive at the expense of the Sinai. Florida and Italy both look much thinner than they are in reality. Newfoundland is missing.
Discussion
All flat maps are distorted, they're just distorted in different ways.
I'm kinda surprised they put Greenland next to Europe when it practically touches Canada. (They do have a land border but its just on a tiny island.)
Pretty sure both Koreas claim the whole peninsula. Just like both China and Taiwan claim Mainland China and the island of Taiwan.
The placement of Greenland helps to center Korea in the middle of the map.
It could be also due to the political connection of Greenland with Denmark
For what it's worth, the current ruling party in Taiwan is pretty adamant that Taiwan is Taiwan, and they're not claiming the mainland. It's a big political discussion over there.
Officially in their constitution they might still claim it, but in reality the government has made it clear they don't.
Still hesitant to declare independence (rightfully so, in my opinion).
Greenland is more European by culture. A bunch of the wildlife is more European as well.
Took me a minute to realize why North America looks so off. First I thought it was backwards, but it’s not. Then I realized Greenland is on the other side of the map and it completely distorts my mental image.
Showing the entire Korean peninsula as a unified entity is a political message, not a cartographical liberty. North and South Korea both aim to govern the entire country instead of having it separated into two states.
Asians made it of course the masses love it
Looks quite nice as a design element. I could imagine that actually beimg a resonably correct vector map that is stretched a bit.
Picking to put Grönland with Europe is a stylistic choice I assume.
No more Hawaii
Who needs it anyway ?
I would imagine that the Hawaiians need it.
Never before realised how much bigger the Atlantic Ocean is than the Pacific.
/s
Sorry, I forgot you couldn't hear my British accent which would have made the sarcasm implicit.
looks nice actually
Maybe a dumb question…but do they claim the entire Korean Peninsula?
Both Korea still claims the entire Korean Peninsula, technically.
Do not forget that this war never actually ended. There was simply a truce since the war became far too costly for both the US and USSR/China and the conflict became very dangerous - it was the only occasion during the Cold War where Soviet and US soldiers fought each other directly. The constant nuclear saber rattling kept everyone at edge. When Stalin died, with the ensuing internal power struggles and the rapid deterioration of the USSR/China relations, both sides reached an agreement to simply stop fighting. For both sides, this was but a temporary truce - that has been in place since 1954.
Yes. Both Koreas agree there is only one Korea.
Yes.
They don't call themselves "North" Korea
But they DO call themselves democratic…
Not anymore
All mapping is wrong in some regard that way. Thats what happens since the earth isnt actually flat. Look how tiny Indonesia and madagaskar look on a map compared to its actually size.
I'd like to congratulate the superior socialist workforce of the People's Republic of Korea. For widening the Suez canal.
Greenland looks really cool on the edge tbf
It's like that one island on the edge of the map in a JRPG that has really overpowered treasure you can't access until like the last 1/10th of the game. You need to breed a golden chocobo to get there.
Perfectly reasonable. You can often forget that America lies east of Asia.
Wonder if they removed this map by now
Not only is Vancouver Island gone, there is also a giant hole where Washington was. California kind of bulges out from that hole.
Northern Ontario is now a thin strip between Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes. Most of the arctic islands of Nunavut/NWT are gone. No Newfoundland, no Hawaii.
Interesting choice to send Greenland over to Europe when it's touching North America
Edit: Hey it actually exists, I didn’t expect that.
It's always interesting to me when they move countries to be the center of the map
I think Iceland is too close to Greenland and it doesn't include Antarctica but it's fine overall
Is it just me or are Europe and Africa projected differently? Europe appears to be displayed as if the surface were round so that Western Europe looks compressed. However, Africa looks flat without Western Africa appearing compressed.
The Tethys Sea appears to have reopened
Someone pried open wide the red sea.
Why is it like slanted like
Ooooh noo 😭, again they leave the Dominican Republic out of a map but they put Jamaica, which is smaller
so symbolic - using the pin to reiterate that you will be pinned down if you ever try to leave
Also Crimea is missing from the Black sea for some reason
They didn’t include smaller landmasses. Also note that Hawaii is absent. It looks like the cutoff were landmasses as big as Sri Lanka and Tasmania with most smaller landmasses excluded.
Why are the Philippines so small? I understand why Japan is but what do they have against the Philippines?
But at least it includes New Zealand!
impressive.
I feel like another test or mapswithout sub could be of Newfoundland... I mean it's there fairly often, sometimes it just gets squished into the mainland... hard to tell with this one, lol.
More like Newlostland, eh? 🤪
Take your upvote from us Newfies and get outta here 🤣
Kiwi humour right there
And Tasmania!
Sorry South Korea but the NK map makers are on point