NGA USA will give secret images about North Korea to human rights groups

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), one of America's most secretive spy organizations, will work with a number of human rights groups to monitor human rights in North Korea, according to a senior NGA official. Formed in 1996 as the National Imaging and Mapping Agency, the NGA operates under the supervision of the United States Department of Defense. It is tasked with supporting U.S. national security by collecting, analyzing and distributing geospatial intelligence. It also performs a combat support mission for the Pentagon. The agency collects most of its data from satellites, surveillance aircraft, and unmanned surveillance drones. Based in a vast 2,3 million square foot building in Washington, the NGA is known for its reserved nature and rarely makes headlines.
Recently, however, NGA data expert Chris Rasmussen said the agency is finalizing a groundbreaking deal to work with human rights groups on North Korea. Rasmussen, a military analyst said the NGA would provide groups with access to raw images collected through aerial reconnaissance and would share its experts' analyzes with them. The groups would also be able to use a digital imaging application developed by NGA for use by its analysts. Human rights groups have specialized in human rights in North Korea and have in the past used commercial satellite imagery data to help locate mass execution sites and mass graves in the secret Asian country. They were also able to locate concentration camps and assess the impact of natural disasters in North Korea. Now the NGA will share its intelligence gathering arsenal with these groups in an effort to shed further light on the state of human rights in North Korea.
Rasmussen said he is not yet able to disclose the names of the human rights groups the NGA is preparing to work with, nor provide details on the specific topics the collaboration will focus on, as official agreements are still in the pipeline. formalization. However, he said that no US intelligence agency has ever worked so closely with human rights organizations. "This kind of collaboration has never been done with an intelligence agency before," Rasmussen said. He added that the NGA hopes to use this collaboration as an incubator to "expand into other areas" with human rights groups and think tanks.