Probably the Craziest Space Program on Earth...

While NASA spends a decade locked in congressional budget hearings and SpaceX blows up rockets for internet amusement, the Hermit Kimdom had quietly perfected the most unforgiving, brutalist aerospace program on Earth. In this episode, we dissect North Korea's bizarre orbital ambitions. For years, their national space agency was literally named NADA, a very fitting title for an agency that spent a decade launching Soviet scrap metal into the ocean while claiming they were beaming socialist bangers back from the cosmos. We break down how Kim Jong-un used the "peaceful" guise of space exploration to reverse-engineer 1960s Soviet tech, how they built the duct-taped Chollima-1 rocket using slave labor, and why the Supreme Leader suddenly decided he needed to master complex cryogenic liquid-oxygen engines in 2024. The result? A catastrophic mid-air vaporization, an extended period of humiliating silence on the launch pads, and the ultimate death of Juche. Subscribe, unless you’re currently writing a 300-page self-criticism for blowing up the Supreme Leader's favorite keroLOX rocket. OP Song: Spring on Jong Il Peak ED Song: Blue Sky of My Country (second version) Key Reference: Elleman, Michael. "The Secret to North Korea’s ICBM Success." IISS, August 2017. Lewis, Jeffrey. "The RD-250 Connection: North Korea's Missile Engine Origins and the March 18 Revolution." 38 North, August 14, 2017. Carlough, Molly, and James Kennedy. "How North Korea Has Bolstered Russia’s War in Ukraine." Council on Foreign Relations, November 29, 2025. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 04:59 From NADA 13:37 To NATA 30:45 The Limits 39:56 A Reality Check 46:56 Final Reflections