AHC: A North Korean manned space program

Exactly as it says on the tin. At any POD in time, propose a way in which, to compete against the South Koreans, North Korea sends a man into space with a life support system that doesn't fail immediately.
 
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jahenders

Banned
In 2007, North Korea sends a single astronaut into space in a tiny capsule atop an Unha rocket (derived from the TaepoDong 2). It doesn't blow up and makes it to space.

The North Korean's loudly proclaim that they've sent a man to space and send back lots of pictures. Unfortunately, it turns out the guy died and the pictures were all taken in the capsule before it was launched. Planning for the deadly scenario, the astronaut has an identical twin and after the launch, the twin has to live his live as the astronaut. He gives up his identity but gets lots of fame and groupies.

Exactly as it says on the tin. At any POD in time, propose a way in which, to compete against the South Koreans, North Korea sends a man into space with a life support system that doesn't fail immediately.
 
I don't think this is so hard, actually. A manned space program doesn't necessarily entail an independent space program. Keep NK firmly in the Russian or Chinese sphere and prevent its Juche/Seongun deformation, and they might well hitch a ride on a program like Interkosmos (or a later/future Chinese analogue), which OTL carried 11 Eastern bloc cosmonauts on Soyuz missions.
 
Knowing NK, the most likely scenario involves a faked mission in some TV studio. Like what those conspiracy nuts accuse the US of doing.
 
I don't think this is so hard, actually. A manned space program doesn't necessarily entail an independent space program. Keep NK firmly in the Russian or Chinese sphere and prevent its Juche/Seongun deformation, and they might well hitch a ride on a program like Interkosmos (or a later/future Chinese analogue), which OTL carried 11 Eastern bloc cosmonauts on Soyuz missions.

Errr... Just because Cuba sent a cosmonaut on an Intercosmos flight doesn't mean Cuba has a 'manned space program'.

So North Korea wouldn't be any different that way.
 
Errr... Just because Cuba sent a cosmonaut on an Intercosmos flight doesn't mean Cuba has a 'manned space program'.

So North Korea wouldn't be any different that way.

Fair enough, though Russia has agreed before to help Cuba develop a joint space program. I can't find what became of it, ultimately—in all honestly, probably nothing, given Russia's issues in the past couple years—but it doesn't seem outside the realm of plausibility for a similar joint program to happen later on between NK and the Soviet Union/Russia/possibly China, as long as they're both stable and on good terms.
 
North Korea's dictatorship and lack of regard for human welfare means that they can put all their resources into a project like this. Unfortunately, "all their resources" is a pretty small sum. You'd need a greater infrastructure, agricultural advances, and modernized tech, probably all the way from Kim Il-Sung's rule. The biggest obstacle will be finding the political will to invest in feeding the North Korean people. A less isolated NK might be able to generate some kind of trade income that could help... but that will need quite the POD.
 

Delta Force

Banned
The Mercury Program cost the equivalent of $1.74 billion in current dollars. The DPRK could afford it, but given a GDP of only $20 billion to $40 billion it would require cuts to the military, rocket program, and nuclear program.

In terms of opportunity costs, if the DPRK were a market based economy executing something akin to Mercury would cost it as much as use its Magnox technology to replicate the dual use nuclear complex at Calder Hall, or as much as designing and building an Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor.
 
Exactly as it says on the tin. At any POD in time, propose a way in which, to compete against the South Koreans, North Korea sends a man into space with a life support system that doesn't fail immediately.

I can at best see the North Koreans being sent by the Soviets, like the East Germans during the 70s and 80s.
The North Koreans simply lack the tech and money to accomplish such a feat; even if they did, it'd make Japan and South Korea even more hostile, which it can't afford after the 70s.
 
Over the last 12 months or so, Kim Jong Un has been taking an interest in the training and progress of his Air Force's first female fighter pilots.

First, the duo mastered the MIG-15 and then the MIG-21. The planes themselves and the flying gear look as though these images could have been taken fifty years ago.

http://theaviationist.com/2014/11/28/kim-jong-un-mig-15-female/

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/22/asia/north-korea-female-fighter-pilots/

Given Kim's apparent interest in these young ladies progress, the 1960's look and feel of their training, it could be in his mind to, one day, send one of them on a sub-orbital trip, into the Sea of Japan. ;-)
 
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