Usually when you hear the news of a Korean rocket launch, it is North Korea being belligerent. But this time, it’s South Koreans being scientific. South Korea will launch its Naro rocket, officially called the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, in June. It is the second attempt at launching a satellite into orbit, the first being just August of last year. The country has high hopes for a successful second rocket launch. This peaceful, scientific use of rocket technology shows that the path North Korea follows is not the only path. And Korea’s burning desire to be a technology center is what is driving this forward.

The launch is tentatively scheduled to be June 9, and preparations have been ongoing since April 8. However, if there are weather delays, it can be up to ten days later.The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KA RI) built half of this rocket – the upper half. The lower half is a Russian booster stage, an Angara rocket, manufactured in Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center. The two stages of the rocket are currently being looked over at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jolla Province. The 100 kg satellite payload was also created in Korea. It is the Science and Technology Satellite No. 2, built jointly by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST ) Satellite Technology Research Center and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology. The research satellite’s two-year mission is to measure the hydrogen content in the atmosphere to get a better understanding of climate change. So far, the Naro space program has cost Korea 502 billion won ($428 million) and has lasted 8 years.

The first launch last August was unsuccessful, and while details are unclear, experts say that faulty electrical wiring or a mechanical problem caused the two fairings protecting the satellite to open too slowly. The satellite was unable to separate from the rest of the vehicle in time and failed to reach orbit. It is presumed that the payload reentered the atmosphere and disintegrated.

Some of South Korea’s reasons for the launch seem to be politicallyminded. For instance, the country plans to notify neighboring countries, the International Civil Aviation Organization, and the U.S.-affiliated International Maritime Organization in order to make sure all the planes and ships in the area are aware of the launch, according to officials. While not explicitly stated, this stands in sharp contrast with the practice of the country’s northern brother, which is known for shooting missiles west and east willy-nilly without giving much warning at all. It stands in even stronger contrast because North Korea has announced possible rocket tests during the same period of time. According to some sources, North Korea may fire an intermediate range ballistic missile into the East Sea in May. However, it is difficult to nail down any specific launch site or date, because the North Korean missiles use solid fuel, which is easily transported, and also use a mobile lauchpad. It could be a coincidence, or it could be South Korea trying to steal news-focus away from North Korea. This type of strategy has been suggested before by political pundits, that South Korea should become more media-savvy and try to steal the spotlight from its belligerent cousin, in order to curb the effectiveness of the North’s highly-politicized and public extortion attempts. This time, it seems to be working, as rumors of North Korea’s launch are happening in May, but South Korea’s launch is happening in June. The buildup and media attention will probably be greater on South Korea’s, or even if it isn’t, the impact will be quickly forgotten in the face of a successful satellite orbit achieved by South Korea just a few weeks after North Korea’s latest Japan-threatening gesture.

It is striking to see North and South Korea using the same technology development for such different ends. Both countries have had significant technological developments in the past fifty years, but the North has used their technological development to spread fear to, and demand things from, their neighbors. They use technology only to support their bombastic rhetoric, which alone would have been overused to the point of powerlessness already. They have developed nuclear technology in the form of nuclear reactors that create weapons-grade plutonium, and in nuclear bombs, which they have tested more than once. They have developed long-range rocket technology and have applied it to make missiles that are capable of hitting their neighbors and, they claim, some islands of Alaska. And while they have announced twice now that they have launched satellites into orbit, once in 1998 and once this year, they clearly have failed both times.

South Korea also has nuclear, rocket, and satellite technologies, but they have taken them in a different direction. South Korea has developed clean nuclear energy which they use to power 45 percent of their country’s total electrical needs. These nuclear reactors do not produce weapons-grade nuclear material, but they do produce almost half of the power necessary to drive the world’s 13th largest economy. South Korea already has six satellites in orbit as well, put there with the help of other space-faring nations. And, of course, their rocket and satellite technologies are being used for scientific research on global warming.

But this rocket launch is also a symbolic gesture for South Korea, as it wants to join the space-faring nation club. If successful, it will become only the 10th country in the world to send up an artificial satellite from its own territory. Long-range plans are to domestically build a first stage by 2018 and to send a probe to the moon by 2025. This is seen as a money-making industry for the nation, who hopes to be able to compete with NASA and the Russian space program for putting things into orbit. Oh, and Japan, and the EU, and other countries. Even a private company, Virgin Galactic, has been preparing to offer satellite launches in addition to its current space tourism program by 2014. It is probably to compete with the SpaceX company, which already launches private satellites into orbit as of last year. Actually, the satellite-launching business might just be pretty competitive soon.

But despite that fact, it is very important to South Korea to be seen as a technology-focused nation, and launching satellites is part of the image that it wants to create. Other parts of that image are other facets of the Korean economy – display manufacturing, semiconductors, even Korea’s building of the KT X high-speed railway, also illustrate this technology hunger. It is not sufficient for Korea to simply hire German engineers to create the KT X railway system was not enough – they had to additionally purchase training and manufacturing processes as well, so that Korea could build and maintain its own railway system in the same fashion. In fact, the country established the Korea Technology Transfer Center, or KTT C, ten years ago in order to make sure that these kinds of technology transfer deals are created. By not only buying the technology, but the training and education needed to make more, Korea creates the very important “indigenous technology,” a point of pride and potential profit.

Each time South Korea becomes able to manufacture something on its own, it is a national news item and a point of pride. Indigenously-created tanks, helicopters, nuclear reactors – the list goes on and on. This is in striking contrast to the trend in the U.S., which is to outsource everything possible. Manufacturing, technology creation, technical support – all of those are being sent to other countries by the U.S. economy. When Korea is bringing the manufacturing of as many different products as possible home to its own country, the U.S. is sending them overseas as much as possible. Korea might have the right idea here, because its performance in the recent global economic crisis was excellent. It did not see too much of a drop in its GDP or the earning power of its citizens, or for that matter job loss. The country held up remarkably well under the strain, and already has completed a full recovery. Perhaps the US could take a page from Korea’s play-book on this issue.

Indigenous technology is an important aspect to the Korean global game strategy, and as previously mentioned, has been pursued with everything from rockets, to tanks and infantry weapons, to airplanes, trains, and automobiles. When the KTT C was founded, it recorded only 68 cases of technology transfer. But by the time 2005 rolled around, it had racked up a record of 284 technology transfers. These came in a wide variety of forms, from license and stock purchases, to academic exchanges and research database acquisition. Both academia and government agencies have been active in getting technologies from abroad. But the accumulation of these signifiers of technology – licenses, stock, papers, agreements, memoranda of understanding – has been the focus of a lot of work in the peninsula.

This is, of course, completely understandable from Korea’s viewpoint, since it created its current economy with technological development. Korea’s rise to its current status was with radios, TVs, and computers. It is just good sense to keep using technological development to fuel further growth in the economy. And that is the true purpose of the rocket launch, and the entire Naro space program, and space center. The program, the center, and the rocket all have the same name. The Naro Space Center’s purpose is about 500 km south of Seoul, and covers 5 million square meters. It cost $251 million to build in 2005. The center includes a mission control, flight safety control, and one launch pad. It also has a meteorological observatory, radar, and optical tracking systems, which are all state of the art. The only thing that it currently lacks is an engine combustion test building, which is what is holding back full-fledged development of indigenous South Korean rockets. Korea has been launching satellites since 1992, but they have been using foreign countries’ equipment to do so. The country really wants to end this dependency. They want to launch satellites into space completely independently by 2018, which would reduce the technology gap between South Korea and formally first-world nations like the US and Russia.

So even if the second launch of the Naro-1 doesn’t go as planned, South Korea will keep trying. It is a long-haul project its got going on here, and they are not ones to give up on technology-related things. From nuclear reactors, to jet fighters, to rockets, Korea is trying to make everything itself. And seeing as how the global economy is doing, and how badly globalization has worked out, maybe that’s not a bad thing. Everything seems to be working out for Korea right now, and it doesn’t look like this trend will change in the near future. Korea’s technology acquisitions are in full swing, it is drawing attention away from its northern neighbor, and if successful the June launch will being a new era of Korea getting paid for sending other people’s satellites into orbit, rather than the other way around. And all in all, that won’t be too bad.