Taepodong-1 over Japan
North Korea fires Taepodong-1 over Japanese territory, claiming a satellite — Kwangmyongsong-1 — has reached orbit. The orbit is never confirmed; UN sanctions on space-related technology to Pyongyang tighten almost immediately.
A working catalogue entry, kept current. Each paragraph is drawn from the publicly documented record.
On 31 August 1998 North Korea launches the Taepodong-1 over Japanese territory, claiming to have placed the Kwangmyongsong-1 satellite into orbit. No object is ever tracked by NORAD. The launch alarms Tokyo, Seoul and Washington and accelerates Japanese investment in indigenous reconnaissance satellites.
UN Security Council responses, in successive resolutions, tighten the export of any space-launch technology to Pyongyang in ways that conflate civilian and military programmes by design. The conflation will become standard practice over the next twenty years against any state Washington has reason to constrain.
Each entry is publicly documented. Have a correction or a stronger source? Send it to the editorial team via the contact form.
