Google Maps shows North Korean prisons, streets

SEOUL, South Korea -- Google Inc. has helped fill the gap in one of the last remaining information black holes in the world by releasing a detailed map of North Korea that adds street names, monuments -- and its notorious prison camps.

Information on streets, parks, monuments and train stops in the capital of Pyongyang showed up on Google Maps' formerly blank map of North Korea this week. Until Tuesday, the isolated communist regime was the last place on Google Maps where no data was available beyond the capital city's name.

The revision came just a few weeks after Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, visited the country as part of a nine-person delegation to North Korea.

Google said there is no connection in the timing of the map's launch and Schmidt's North Korea visit.