Multiple fires burned in North Korea in mid-October 2009, sending a plume of smoke over the Sea of Japan. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image on October 15. Red outlines indicate hotspots associated with active fires, although not all the fires have visible hotspots. The smoke plumes blow uniformly eastward, some of the individual plumes coalescing into a single large plume over the sea. NASA Earth Observatory images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.

Reporting by Jon Herskovitz, Editing by Dean Yates SEOUL (Reuters) – Vast forest fires have hit a large part of central North Korea, sending plumes of smoke over most of the country’s central and eastern regions, images provided by NASA show. … The U.S. space agency said multiple fires had been burning in the state since mid-October, with several hot spots located in a mountainous region in the center of the country. (here) … North Korea has not commented on the fires in its official media and the South’s Unification Ministry said it was looking into the reports.

Large parts of North Korea hit by forest fires: NASA

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