The Ministry of Science and Technology has selected two-hundred-45 people as candidates for Korea’s first astronaut.

Among them, two-hundred-eleven are men and 34 are women. The youngest are two 19-year-olds and a 49-year-old professor is the oldest.

The candidates come from every walk of life. Among them, 70 are office workers, with college students, soldiers, professors, public servants, journalists and medical doctors also picked.

The ministry plans to select two final candidates by year's end after narrowing down the two-hundred-45 candidates to 30 in the next round.

The two final candidates will begin training at Russia’s Gagarin Space Center in early 2007. But only one will become the first Korean astronaut and board the Russian spacecraft Soyuz in April 2008.