According to reports from YTN television and the Yonhap news agency, 'technical problems' led to the postponement of the launch of South Korea's first space rocket - the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), which was scheduled to blast-off on Wednesday, from Goheung's Naro Space Center,
475km south of Seoul.

Reports said that government officials had infused fuel and oxidation agents nearly two hours before the scheduled launch, and the countdown began 15 minutes before lift-off of the KSLV-1. However, the countdown was stopped barely eight minutes before the lift-off!

The €297 million KSLV-1 is essentially a 33 meters long and 140 tonnes heavy, two-stage space vehicle - with its first stage having been built by Russia and the second by local engineers. While the Russian liquid-fuelled first-stage would produce 1,700 kilonewtons (kN) of thrust at the rocket's launch, the solid-fuelled second stage would generate 80kN of thrust, to place a 100kg satellite in orbit.

South Korea, which aims at competing with its Asian counterparts - China, India and Japan - in terms of advanced space program, has already launched 10 domestically- produced satellites on the rockets of other countries.

The country's first astronaut into space, Yi So-Yeon, who went aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket in April last year, spent 11 days on the International Space Station (ISS), and carried out experiments for the government and industry.