PYONGYANG (CNN) — In December 2012, North Korea’s fledgling space program at last had something to celebrate.
After an embarrassing failure earlier that year — a previous rocket had blown up just after takeoff in April — they claimed to have placed Kwangmyongsong 3-2, an earth observation satellite, in orbit.
The secretive state had claimed two previous satellite successes in 1998 and 2009, though no one outside of the country was ever able to detect them. This time, however, international experts generally agreed that KMS 3-2 was in space, but most were skeptical that it was operational.
While North Korea claims its space program is completely peaceful, many international governments think its real nature is military — the same rocket technology to put a satellite in orbit can be used to deliver nuclear warheads to any part of the planet. The launch triggered further U.N. sanctions against the DPRK.
In a hotel meeting room, we were about to meet two scientists from DPRK’s National Aerospace Development Administration — the space agency has an acronym NADA, and a logo remarkably similar to that of NASA — the space agency of its archenemy, the USA.
Icy atmosphere
The two men walked into the room, stony faced and looked around the room at our set-up. We had placed their seats at the end of the conference table for a more convenient camera angle, rather than dead center under the portraits of the former leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. They were clearly unhappy with this arrangement.
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