Ko Suspects Spy Agencies for Space Mission Exit
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
Astronaut candidate Ko San said Friday that he didn't understand his sudden replacement ― in March ― on Korea's first mission to the International Space Station (ISS), and intimated that some spy agencies had meddled in the process.
Ko reversed a previous statement from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) that the Russian space agency replaced him with Yi So-yeon because he tried to send home classified documents in a parcel. He declined to say what had really irked the Russians and caused his abrupt exit from the program announced on March 8, only a month before the launch.
``I'm not that stupid to try to steal important documents that way. There were really subtle incidents and Russian officials later agreed they did not matter,'' Ko told The Korea Times after a press conference in Seoul. ``The replacement of astronauts was a very complicated matter because intelligence agencies were involved in it.''
There have been several conspiracy theories circulating that Ko was a scapegoat in a power game between Russia and South Korea. Shindonga, a monthly magazine, alleged in its April issue that the Russian government kicked Ko out in retaliation for the Korean prosecution's ongoing investigation of Russian diplomats stationed in Korea.
A weekly news magazine Sisain made another allegation. It said that then First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov personally blamed Russia's space agency for allowing foreign astronauts to learn its technologies and know-how.
Ko refused to elaborate on the issue, citing friendship between the two nations. A spokeswoman for the National Intelligence Service denied any involvement, though she admitted its agents have been monitoring the case.
Ko, whose mission was to conduct scientific and educational experiments on the ISS, said it was true that he tried to learn how to fly the Soyuz spaceship, but that it was done with the agreement of his Russian colleagues and instructors, and in some cases that they even encouraged it.
``Strictly speaking, it was against regulations. But the boundary of legitimate and illegitimate was very vague in the training,'' he said to the press. ``I was allowed to ask questions and see flight manuals when I wanted to, because I had to understand the systems and I had to know how to operate the spacecraft to some degree. Even my Russian colleagues Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko understood this very well, so they requested our instructors to teach me those things.''
His new remarks are in stark contrast to those he said in March when he and Yi were still at the Russian space center, waiting for the launch. In a press release then, Ko apologized for a personal blunder, saying he had ``crossed the line.''
The 31-year-old artificial intelligence researcher reiterated that the KARI had nothing to do with the case, and said he hoped to utilize the know-how he learned about manned space flight.
At the press conference, Yi So-yeon said she still has a sore back from the shock of a rough landing. ``I'm still wearing a brace, and my doctor said that I must not run, yet. That's really hard because I love running,'' she said, adding she is undergoing Oriental medicine therapy at an Air Force hospital. Yi leaves for Russia for a debriefing on May 18.