The Kwangmyŏngsŏng program is a class of experimental satellites developed by North Korea. The name Kwangmyŏngsŏng ("bright star", "brilliant star" or "constellation" in Korean) is from a poem written by Kim Il-sung. The first class of satellites built by North Korea, the program started in the mid-1980s. There have been five launches so far, of which two have been successful. Background According to North Korea Academy of Science's Academician Kwon Tong-hwa, the SLV was developed in the 1980s when late leader Kim Il-sung announced the decision to launch a North Korean satellite. The decision to send a North Korean satellite was precipitated by the successful launching of South Korea's first satellite, Uribyol-1, on 10 August 1992 and its second satellite, Uribyol 2, on 26 September 1993, both by a European Ariane 4 SLV. In a late-1993 meeting of the Korean Workers' Party Central Committee, Kim Il-sung expressed his desire to quickly place a satellite into orbit, leading to the expansion of North Korea's nascent space program and the requirement for a space launch vehicle. First orbital launch attempt The official Korean Central News Agency announced on 4 September 1998, Juche 87, that a satellite called Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1 had been launched at 3:07 UTC on 31 August from a launch site in Musudan-ri, Hwadae-gun, North Hamgyong Province by a Paektusan-1 satellite launch vehicle (SLV). No objects were ever tracked in orbit from the launch, and outside North Korea it is considered to have been a failure. United States Space Command reported that the satellite failed to reach orbit, and burned up in the atmosphere. The failure is believed to have occurred during the third stage burn. North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il revealed that the country had spent approximately 200–300 million dollars for the satellite project during a summit with then-South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung in 2000. Second orbital launch attempt Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 was a satellite launched by North Korea on 5 April 2009. According to the North Korean government, an Unha-2 rocket carrying the satellite was launched on Sunday 5 April 2009 at 11:20 local time (02:20 UTC) from the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground at Musudan-ri in northeastern North Korea. However, officials in South Korea and the United States reported that the rocket and any payload had fallen into the Pacific Ocean. The Russian Space Control concurred, stating that the satellite "simply is not there". Prior to the launch, concern was raised by