The Korean Committee of Space Technology (KCST; ,

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...

: 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. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

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 Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...

(North Korea) responsible for the country's space program. The agency was terminated and succeeded by the National Aerospace Development Administration 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 The Korean People's Army Strategic Force (Korean: 조선인민군 전략군), previously known as the Korean People's Army Strategic Rocket Force (Korean: 조선인민군 전략로케트군) and as the Missile Guidance Bureau (Korean: 미사일� ...

of the Korean People's Army.

Operations

The KCST was responsible for all operations concerning

space exploration Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration though is conducted both by robotic spacec ...

and construction of satellites. On 12 March 2009, North Korea signed the Outer Space Treaty and the Registration Convention, 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, 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 northern end of the East K ...

and Sohae Satellite Launching Station rocket launching sites, Baekdusan-1 and

Unha The Unha or Eunha ( ko, 은하, 銀河, "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 ...

(Baekdusan-2) 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. * Sohae Satellite Launching Station 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 or Gwangmyeongseong-1 ( ko, 광명성 1호, 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 obj ...

on 31 August 1998 and Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 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 own manned space flights and development of a manned partially reusable launch vehicle. Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 was launched on 13 April 2012 and ended in failure shortly after launch. A follow-up attempt the following December, Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2 entered polar orbit as confirmed by various countries.

Launch history

This is a list of satellites launched.

References