Profile Icon

🇰🇵North Korea Launch History

Every orbital and deep-space launch attempt attributed to North Korea, year by year, drawn from the GCAT launch catalog. Country is the launching state of the pad.

Data current as of 2026-07-20.

North Korea made 9 orbital and deep-space launch attempts between 1998 and 2024. Of those, 3 succeeded and 6 failed. The success rate comes to 33 percent. The busiest year was 2023, with 3 launches. The most recent launch in the catalog was in 2024. Launches took place from 2 sites.

9
Launch attempts
3
Successes
6
Failures
33%
Success rate

Launches per year

1 2 3 1998: 1 launch (0 successes, 1 failure) 1999: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2000: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2001: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2002: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2003: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2004: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2005: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2006: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2007: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2008: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2009: 1 launch (0 successes, 1 failure) 2010: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2011: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2012: 2 launches (1 success, 1 failure) 2013: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2014: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2015: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2016: 1 launch (1 success, 0 failures) 2017: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2018: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2019: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2020: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2021: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2022: 0 launches (0 successes, 0 failures) 2023: 3 launches (1 success, 2 failures) 2024: 1 launch (0 successes, 1 failure) 1998 2003 2008 2013 2018 2023
Successes Failures Each bar links to that year's full chronology.

Year by year

Year Attempts Successes Failures Success rate
2024 1 0 1 0%
2023 3 1 2 33%
2016 1 1 0 100%
2012 2 1 1 50%
2009 1 0 1 0%
1998 1 0 1 0%

Launch sites

Counts for each GCAT launch site attributed to North Korea.

Site code Site Launches Successes Failures First year Last year
SOHAE Sohae Satellite Launching Station 7 3 4 2012 2024
TONGH Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground 2 0 2 1998 2009

Recent launches

The most recent launches attributed to North Korea, newest first.

Date Designator Payloads Vehicle Site / Pad Outcome
May 27, 2024 2024-F02 NK Recon 4 NK Kerolox LV SOHAE / LC2 Failure
Nov 21, 2023 2023-179 NK Recon 3 Cheonlima-1 SOHAE / LC2 Success
Aug 23, 2023 2023-F07 NK Recon 2 Cheonlima-1 SOHAE / LC2 Failure
May 30, 2023 2023-F06 6 : NK Recon 1 Cheonlima-1 SOHAE / LC2 Failure
Feb 7, 2016 2016-009 5 : KMS-4 Kwangmyongsong SOHAE / LC1 Success
Dec 12, 2012 2012-072 4 : KMS-3 Unit 2 Unha-3 SOHAE / LC1 Success
Apr 12, 2012 2012-F01 3 : Kwangmyongsong-3 Unha-3 SOHAE / LC1 Failure
Apr 5, 2009 2009-F02 2 : Kwangmyongsong-2 Unha-2 TONGH / TONGH - Failure
Aug 31, 1998 1998-F04 Kwangmyongsong 1 Paektusan 1 TONGH / TONGH - Failure
← All countries All years