The original, former government agency of North Korea responsible for the country’s space programme, including space exploration and the construction of satellites. Most likely founded sometime in the 1980s under a branch of the Korean People’s Army, KCST signed the Outer Space Treaty on 12 March 2009 and operated the Tonghae Launching Ground and the Sohae Satellite Launching Station. Since 1998, five attempts at placing satellites in orbit from these sites have been made, with the last two succeeding: Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2 (2012) and Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 (2016). In 2013 KCST terminated and became the National Aerospace Development Administration.