PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korean space officials are hard at work on a five-year plan to put more advanced satellites into orbit by 2020, and don’t intend to stop there: They’re also aiming for the moon.

A senior official at North Korea’s version of NASA said international sanctions won’t stop the country from launching more satellites by 2020, and that he hopes to see the North Korean flag on the moon within 10 years.

“Even though the U.S. and its allies try to block our space development, our aerospace scientists will conquer space and definitely plant the flag of the DPRK on the moon,” said Hyon Kwang Il, director of scientific research at North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration.

An unmanned, no-frills North Korean moon mission isn’t as far-fetched as it might seem. Outside experts say it’s ambitious, but conceivable. While the U.S. is the only country to have conducted manned lunar missions, other nations have sent unmanned spacecraft there.

“It would be a significant increase in technology, not one that is beyond them …” says Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.


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