South Korea Takes a Different Path from North Korean Space Program
On Friday, South Korea launched its first military spy satellite into space roughly a week after the North Koreans launched their first spy satellite. Now the space race is on between the North and the South. North Korea announced plans for a phased approach to space domination to “thwart both the Imperialist United States and their puppet state of South Korea.” Those plans include a five kilometer tall statue of “Dear Leader” sitting stop a rocket, several nuclear missile launch platforms, a space station twice as large as the International one, and a moon-based gulag. South Korea has more modest plans of establishing a demilitarized zone (DMZ) in geosynchronous orbit above the 38th parallel using a series of surveillance satellites, space-based mines, a large South Korean flag, and a series of peace villages. Neither the South Koreans nor Americans have stated whether the space-based DMZ would include US Space Force personnel on guard beside the South Koreans. The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned more than ten foreign-based agents for violating space-based technology limitations placed on the North Koreans and for indulging Kim Jong Un's desire to be space emperor. North Korea has warned the US against interfering with their space assets. The US just shrugged. No one can formally say whether the North Korea satellite actually made it into orbit and is working, but most experts doubt it. NASA issued a simple press statement that said, “Space is hard.”