NADA_NASA

For a country that allegedly has little contact with the outside world, North Korea somehow manages to end up in the news an awful lot. While it’s hard to tell how much of what we hear and read is true, sometimes a nugget of truth–beautiful, hilarious truth–slips through the cracks of propaganda on both sides of the ideological line and leaves us giggling.

As you’ve probably heard, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has recently unveiled the logo for their year-old space agency, NADA. Though they may have expected fanfare or at least a bit of grudging respect, the main response they got was an Internet full of giggles.

A few problems are at the root of the mirth surrounding the announcement. First, while April 1 probably doesn’t seem to have much significance as a day for pranks and humorous lies in North Korea, for the rest of the Internet, it’s nearly impossible to take anything seriously. In fact, if the DPRK ever wanted to claim a victory over their enemies, they could just launch an all out attack on midnight of April Fools’ Day and we’d all be too busy laughing to react. So showing off your new logo on the silliest of silly days is a recipe for leaving people wondering, “Wait, did North Korea go back in time and kidnap a graphic designer from 1965 or did every major newspaper in the world get together to play the weirdest April Fools’ joke ever?”

Based on a press release found in the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, it looks like this is no April Fool’s joke. Which brings us to the other issue with the logo’s big reveal: The logo itself. As a number of websites have already pointed out, the North Korean space agency’s logo is suspiciously similar to NASA’s current logo, which was originally created in 1959. But is it really a fair comparison? Well, take a look for yourself.

▼We never noticed before, but why is there a giant
red labia flying through space on the NASA logo?

NASA

▼Hey, North Korea’s version has a much less
ostentatious number of stars! See, so different!

NADA

Okay, so the logos are pretty similar. But what about other space agency logos? Maybe the DPRK is just following a well-worn path. Here are logos for 12 of the world’s various space agencies.

Top row: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Russian Federal Space Agency, JAXA, European Space Agency, Indian Space Research Organisation, National Centre for Space Studies (France).
Bottom row: Italian Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Pakistan), UK Space Agency, Iranian Space Agency, German Aerospace Center

nk space

Well, we are seeing a lot of blue and a lot of circles…but there aren’t really any that have the same sort of bland logo over a blue sphere with stars–except maybe Canada’s space agency. But the maple leaf adds some uniqueness for the northern country.

So, is it fair to suggest that North Korean is aping or ripping off NASA? We’ll leave that one up to you, but in case you want the DPRK’s take on it, here’s their official explanation of the logo:

“The emblem of the NADA was recently instituted, which represents its character, mission, position and development prospects.

Seen in the lower part of the globe-shaped dark blue emblem are white-colored letters ‘Kukgaujugaebalkuk’ (National Aerospace Development Administration) in Korean and in its upper part light blue-colored letters “DPRK” with the Great Bear above them. Printed in its middle are white-colored letters “NADA” in English.

Two light blue-colored rings intercrossing the emblem symbolize satellite orbits.

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.

The globe represents the DPRK’s idea for peaceful development of the space and the rings show the DPRK’s will to launch satellite into all orbits.”

There is one more cause for laughter for netizens though: The space agency’s name. But what’s in a name, as zombie Shakespeare would ask before nibbling on your thigh muscle.

In case you’ve forgotten your high school Spanish, here’s a quick reminder: “Nada” means “nothing.” Obviously, this was hardly the intention of the reclusive country! After all, the translated name of the space agency reads as “National Aerospace Development Administration,” whose acronym would clearly be NADA. Of course, it’s not helping that they’ve so far had only a little luck in the space race, leaving some of us to wonder if it’s not a name but rather the count of their successes. Still, it’s not like “NADA” is actually a rare acronym–here’s a list of 21 other meanings for the four letters.

So is it really fair to laugh at North Korea’s selection? Probably not…but we still haven’t stopped giggling!

Sources: Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Huffington Post Japan, Independent, Korean News Service, Rodong Sinmun (link may not work)
Images: Rodong Sinmun (link may not work), Wikipedia, Google Image Search