Ko San
, an athletic talent who won a bronze medal in the national amateur boxing competition in 2004 , were picked up as South Korea's first astronaut by the country's Ministry of Science and Technology today on September 5. The 30-year-old computer engineer beat out Yi So-yeon, a 29-year-old female doctorate researcher during the final selection. Ko is set to fly on board Soyuz TMA-12 during an eight day trip to the International Space Station (ISS) in April 2008.
Ko was born in Busan and raised in Seoul. He graduated from Seoul National University and was a researcher at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology in the artificial intelligence and computer vision field, before being picked for the astronaut program of South Korea.
Update: Ko San was demoted to the back-up of Yi So-Yeon after he violated security protocol at a Russian training centre. Mar 9, 2008
Sources: Former Boxer Will Go to Space in April @ Korea Times
Biography of Yi So-yeon @ Spacefacts.de
Related reading: Ko San to Boost Korea’s Dream for Space Power @ Korea Times