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case study
Revealing intent: North Korea
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is a revered think tank focused on practical policy solutions
and defining the future of national security. It provides global nonpartisan, expert-driven analysis and reporting. On
assignment to investigate North Korea's ballistic missile program, a team from CSIS needed both current satellite
imagery and a view into the past.
North Korea is an incredibly closed-off country with little reliable information
entering or leaving the country. CSIS needed a reliable and accurate account of
their progress toward ballistic missile development. The team conducted numerous
interviews with North Korean defectors, government, defense and intelligence
officials around the world, as well as consulting declassified documents and open
source reporting.
However, critical context and evidence for the report was derived from more than
41 Maxar high-resolution satellite images. With reliable, cloud-based access to
our 100+ petabyte imagery library and fresh collections, SecureWatch provided a
valuable resource of historical and daily insight into North Korea.
REVEALING INTENT:
NORTH KOREA
"When we're working our way through interview
notes and hundreds of pages of documentation,
having satellite imagery that helps us visualize
the information is incredibly useful. It provides
evidence, "look, here it is." And SecureWatch
gives us the flexibility to work at our own pace,
whether that's pulling imagery from the early
2000s, last year or last week."
— Joseph Bermudez
Senior Fellow for Imagery Analysis,
iDeas Lab and Korea Chair, CSIS
