NoKo body count on Google Earth

Kim about to receive his first merit badge

Based in Seoul, South Korea, a non-governmental organization called the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) used Google Earth technology to allow North Korean defectors to "build a digital map of crimes against humanity in North Korea."

TJWG released a report on Wednesday after two years of research (merely one fifth the amount of time it took Mike Lindell to invent "My Pillow") and interviews with 375 North Korean defectors, that identifies what is believed to be grave sites, murder locations and government offices that "may be used for future investigation and prosecution of crimes against humanity." 

The technology identifies cremation sites, hangings, public executions and remote burial sites and said to be in close proximity to known detention facilities and labor camps (evidently to save on costs to transport the victims, dead or alive).

"The majority of burial and killing sites identified were in North Hamgyong Province, which borders China," states the report, and acknowledging that 221 of the 375 defectors came from this province.

The defectors identified 47 "body sites," called so because not all the dead were actually buried. "While the majority of these sites are burial sites, some of those identified by interviewees were sites where the bodies were not buried but rather abandoned, dumped, hidden without burial, or were storage sites for bodies yet to be buried or cremated."

TJWG data collected during the interviews, with the 100 informants initially, then another 275 in the second year, had the informants look at satellite imagery with basic landmark information such as rail lines in order to orient themselves. 

The defectors would then describe atrocities they knew about, allowing researchers to note the locations. In addition, they categorized the defector's relationship to the location or event, indicating if they were physically present, heard or saw directly what took place, or if they heard it merely as a rumor.

The data spans decades, even back to Kim Jong Il, the father of Un and former Supreme Leader.

The group claims this report is the first of its kind and was founded in 2014 by human rights advocates in international researchers. The purpose of the report is to attract more experts and informants to the cause of human rights.

The project, they say, is not trying to "establish individual criminal responsibility of given actors, but rather to expose in a transparent manner the extent of the violations committed and their systematic nature."

"It is our intention to provide our data to the relevant legal authorities at a time when we expect the necessary criminal investigation to take place."

In a recent Fox News Poll, 68 percent of voters are concerned about war with North Korea, which means that fully 32 percent of voters have their heads up in their nether regions.


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