The Korean Committee of Space Technology (KCST; ,

Hanja Hanja (; ), alternatively spelled Hancha, are Chinese characters used to write the Korean language. After characters were introduced to Korea to write Literary Chinese, they were adapted to write Korean as early as the Gojoseon period. () ...

: 朝鮮宇宙空間技術委員會) was the agency of the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

of the

Democratic People's Republic of Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

(North Korea) responsible for the country's

space program A space program is an organized effort by a government or a company with a goal related to outer space. Lists of space programs include: * List of government space agencies * List of private spaceflight companies * List of human spaceflight prog ...

. The agency was terminated and succeeded by the

National Aerospace Development Administration National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA; ) is the official space agency of North Korea, succeeding the Korean Committee of Space Technology (KCST). It was founded on 1 April 2013. Formerly called the National Aerospace Development A ...

in 2013 after the Law on Space Development was passed in the 7th session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly.

History

Very little information on it is publicly available. It is known to have been founded sometime in the 1980s, and most likely is connected to the Artillery Guidance Bureau of the

Korean People's Army The Korean People's Army (KPA; ) encompasses the combined military forces of North Korea and the armed wing of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). The KPA consists of five branches: the Korean People's Army Ground Force, Ground Force, the Ko ...

Operations

The KCST was responsible for all operations concerning

space exploration Space exploration is the process of utilizing astronomy and space technology to investigate outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted bo ...

and construction of satellites. On 12 March 2009, North Korea signed the

Outer Space Treaty The Outer Space Treaty, formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a Multilateralism, multilateral treaty that forms the bas ...

and the

Registration Convention The Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space (commonly known as the Registration Convention) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1974 and went into force in 1976. As of February 2022, it has been ratified ...

, after a previous declaration of preparations for a new satellite launch.

Facilities

North Korean Unha-3 rocket at launch pad

The KCST operated the

Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground The Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground(동해위성발사장), also known as Musudan-ri (), is a rocket launching site in North Korea. Location It lies in southern Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province, near Musu Dan, the cape marking the ...

and

Sohae Satellite Launching Station Sohae Satellite Launching Station (, also known as Tongch'ang-dong Space Launch Center and Pongdong-ri) is a rocket launching site in Tongch'ang-ri, Cholsan County, North Pyongan Province, North Korea. The base is located among hills close to ...

rocket launching sites, Paektusan-1 and

Unha The Unha (, "Galaxy") is a North Korean expendable launch system, expendable launch vehicle, carrier rocket, which partially utilizes the same delivery system as the Taepodong-2 orbital launch system. History North Korea's first orbital space ...

launchers, Kwangmyŏngsŏng satellites. South Korea and the United States accused North Korea of using these facilities and the rockets as a cover for a military ballistic missile testing program. *

built from the 2000s to 2010s with a launch pad completed in 2011. *

built from the 2000s to 2010s with a launch pad completed in 2011.

Projects

The DPRK twice announced that it had launched satellites:

Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1 Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1 (, Hanja: , meaning Bright Star 1) was a satellite allegedly launched by North Korea on 31 August 1998. While the North Korean government claimed that the launch was successful, no objects were ever tracked in orbit from the ...

on 31 August 1998 and

Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 (, meaning Bright Star-2 or Lode Star-2) was a satellite launched by North Korea on April 5, 2009. Prior to the launch, concern was raised by other nations, particularly the United States, South Korea and Japan, that the la ...

on 5 April 2009. The US and South Korea predicted that the launches would in actuality be military ballistic missile tests, but later confirmed that they had followed orbital launch trajectories. In 2009, the DPRK announced more ambitious future space projects including its own crewed space flights and development of a crewed partially reusable launch vehicle.

Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 () was a North Korean Earth observation satellite which, according to the DPRK, was for weather forecast purposes, and whose launch was widely portrayed in the West to be a veiled ballistic missile test. The satellite was l ...

was launched on 13 April 2012 and ended in failure shortly after launch. A follow-up attempt the following December,

Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2 Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2 () was the first satellite successfully launched from North Korea, an Earth observation spacecraft that was launched on 12 December 2012, 00:49 UTC, in order to replace the original Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3, which failed t ...

entered polar orbit as confirmed by various countries.

Launch history

This is a list of satellites launched.

References