Making the headlines a bit more interesting today is North Korea's first anniversary celebration of its latest endeavor into nothingness - sorry, we mean aeronautics. It appears its national agency that looks into outer space carries one of these words for acronym: Nada. Zilch. Zero.
Unless, of course, they believe there is really nothing out there - except for the Sun, the stars, the moon, the planets and the bits and pieces of the universe floating in circles - then perhaps the acronym is only appropriate. Or unless they don't know that nada in Spanish means nothing.
Now who could blame people seeking answers for these questions, neither can anyone blame their government for choosing such acronym. For all we know, they have other things in mind.
The National Aeronautics Development Agency - yes, this is NADA - marks its first anniversary in its pursuit of nothingness - again, we mean aeronautics - on a one fine day that is April 1.
"The DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] has pushed ahead with space development projects to turn the country into a space power, fully exercising its right to peaceful development of the space on a legal basis," writes the Korean Central News Agency, the news service of the state, on March 31.
The release further says that NADA now becomes the central guidance institution that will organize all projects on space development, with a mission to put in practice DPRK's idea and principle to develop space for peaceful purpose.
Equally interesting, besides the new name and acronym, is its new logo that has been unveiled in time for the said founding anniversary. The state news service explains the government's reasons behind the emblem.
The NADA logo represents the agency's mission, position, character and development prospects. In the lower part of the dark blue, globe-shaped emblem are white colored letters spelled as "Kukgaujugaebalkuk" that stands for the agency's name in Korean. In the upper part are light blue-colored letters with the country's acronym "DPRK" and with a Great Bear above these letters.
"The Great Bear reflects the will of the space scientists of the DPRK to glorify Kim Il Sung's and Kim Jong Il's Korea as a space power," says the news service.
Right at the heart of the globe, and just below the DPRK acronym, is the English acronym "NADA" in white-colored letters. To symbolize the satellite orbits, two light blue-colored rings intercross the emblem. The globe represents the idea of the country for a peaceful development of space, while the rings represent the will of the country to launch satellite in all orbits.
NADA's logo, however, has been described by observers as a rip-off of NASA, the space agency of the U.S.
The Guardian, for instance, reported that the new logo appears to be very similar with its opponent NASA.
"However, the state news agency neglects to mention one glaring thing: the new logo looks a lot like that of NASA, the space agency of Pyongyang foe's the US, right down to the blue globe, lettering and swooshed ring," The Guardian wrote.
The space program of North Korea has been criticized heavily by a United Nations report, even describing the country as an abuser of human rights with a strong resemblance of the Nazis.
North Korea's first orbiting satellite has been launched on a three-stage Unha rocket in December 2012. Unha is Korean term for galaxy. The launch has been its fifth attempt, after the rocket exploded right after first lift-off in April 2012.
According to North Korea's scientists, the satellite has mission to study weather patterns and crops. Its government also insisted time and again that the space program is for peaceful purposes. Although other countries, such as Japan and U.S., think that this could be used to advance long-range weapons through a ballistic missile technology, which is probably to support the nuclear program of North Korea.
Interestingly, U.S. astronomers initially detected the satellite was in normal orbit, until the craft no longer transmits any signal. Many engineers worldwide have a wild guess: the craft may have failed after launch and possibly just tumbling in orbit.
