Give an astronaut on the International Space Station a digital camera and you’re bound to end up with some astounding images – especially if they’re flying above North Korea.

It is a regime shrouded in secrecy – and images captured from space show that North Korea is also cloaked in darkness.

When the space station passed over East Asia one night recently, a member of NASA’s Expedition 38 crew took a series of photographs that show just how off-the-grid the Hermit Kingdom really is.