Author: GIKorea

This is a really good technology demonstration for the ROK to have put a satellite into space with a solid fuel rocket from a barge:

South Korea successfully conducted a third test flight of a solid-fuel space rocket Monday, the defense ministry said, as part of efforts to build its independent space-based surveillance system against North Korea. 

The space launch vehicle was launched from a barge floating in waters about 4 kilometers south of Jeju Island at 2 p.m. and placed a small Earth observation satellite into orbit at an altitude of about 650 km, the ministry said. 

The 100-kilogram synthetic aperture radar satellite, made by Hanwha Systems, succeeded in sending signals to a ground station at 3:45 p.m., which means it is operating normally, the company said.

The rocket is designed to put a small satellite into a low Earth orbit for surveillance operations. Compared with liquid-fuel space vehicles, solid-fuel ones are known to be usually simpler and more cost-effective to launch.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The decline is students is expected to impact the entire educational industry to include the number of teachers hired in the future:

South Korea is set to record the lowest number of first graders entering elementary school next year, signaling the consequences of an apparent demographic crisis driven by the world’s lowest birth rate.

According to local reports quoting the statistics agency’s birth rate data, fewer than 400,000 children are expected to enter elementary school next year. This will be the first time the number has dropped below 400,000 since the agency started compiling data.

This comes amid a sharp decline in the number of infants born in 2017, who will be entering elementary school in March next year.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

It took war in Ukraine to for the Pentagon to understand that the future of warfare is drones when most everybody else could easily see it coming. However, there is not as much money building drones as overpriced manned aircraft for defense contractors:

The war in Ukraine has shown the value of low-cost drone swarms in modern warfare. Now the Pentagon is planning to build an army of thousands of small, cheap drones in hopes of spurring U.S. drone production and cutting China’s dominance of that market.

American drone makers are hoping the Pentagon’s “Replicator” program will give a shot in the arm to U.S. manufacturing. Defense experts say there is a need for Washington to build a drone supply chain that doesn’t run through China, due to the small but real risk of a future war between the two rivals.

Stars and Stripes

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That is what some Korea analysts now believe after she received a new title as “Morning Star General”:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, seated right, and his daughter Ju-ae, seated left, visit North Korea’s Air Force Command on Nov. 30. Yonhap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un referred to his daughter as “Morning Star General,” just days after the North’s reconnaissance satellite, Malligyong-1, successfully entered orbit on Nov. 21.

The young girl, known as Ju-ae, was previously referred to by North Korea’s state-controlled media as “dear child” or “respected child.”

The dramatic change in the way she is addressed has fueled speculation on whether the new title could be interpreted as a confirmation of her status as the North’s heir apparent.

Cheong Seong-chang, a research fellow at Sejong Institute, took the title change seriously, arguing that it is an important move related to leadership succession.

“I think it’s definitely associated with the fourth-generation leadership succession,” he told The Korea Times. “Kim made it clear that his daughter will succeed him by referring to her as ‘Morning Star General.'”

In North Korea, the term “morning star” has been used figuratively to refer to a leader in waiting.

Korea Times

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This would be a provocative action by the U.S. Space Force if they did try and disable North Korea’s supposed spy satellite because it would set a precedent for other countries to take action on U.S. satellites as well:

North Korea lashed out at the United States on Saturday after a U.S. space official hinted at possible disabling of the North’s military spy satellite launched last week, saying that it will take it as “a declaration of war” against the regime.

A spokesperson of the North’s defense ministry issued the statement after Sheryll Klinkel, a strategic communicator at the U.S. Space Command, told a media program in reference to the North’s spy satellite that “a variety of reversible and irreversible means” can be employed to “deny” an adversary’s space and counterspace capabilities. 

Appearing on the Radio Free Asia earlier this week, Klinkel also said that joint force space operations can reduce the effectiveness and lethality of adversary forces across all domains. 

“The U.S. Space Force’s deplorable hostility toward the DPRK’s reconnaissance satellite can never be overlooked as it is just a challenge to the sovereignty of the DPRK, and more exactly, a declaration war against it,” read the English-language statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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