Hwanin – Bythnian Gate, Kang-te System
Colony Founded: 2182 CE (formally)
Population: 9,710 (permanent)
Capital: Spitsberg
A satellite of the gas giant Belmez, Hwanin is an unusually large moon with a trace atmosphere of nitrogen and ammonia. Its surface is frozen, and mainly composed of sandstone and other sedimentary rocks and deposits of iron and chlorides.
Although Hwanin is terribly inhospitable and considered unremarkable at best in terms of resource wealth, its mass relay is a stop between various human systems and the beginning of turian space. For this reason a number of military bases, listening outposts, informetric arrays, and fleet depots were constructed by the Alliance in the area beginning in the early 2160s; the official reason for the significant military presence in the region remains "to offer protection and support to itinerant human and turian merchants from pirate activity in the region". By the mid-2170s, a number of settlements had sprung up around various military installations, the largest being the city of Spitsberg in the vicinity of Miramar Base.
Eager to gain full voting rights, the civilian population of Hwanin actively campaigned for proper inclusion into the Systems Alliance; these efforts paid off in 2182, when the administration of the settlements was handed over to a popularly-elected government with representation in the Arcturus Parliament. Despite the colony's location in a less-than-ideal world, growth has been steady, bolstered by the system's location on an important trade lane.