6 days Ago By The Korea Herald
A Seoul official on Tuesday pointed to setting norms, securing a reliable supply chain for space economy and ensuring national security as priority areas for space-domain cooperation between South Korea and the United States. Han Min-young, director general for climate change, energy, environment and scientific affairs at Seoul's foreign ministry, made the remarks during a forum hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. The forum took place after Seoul and Washington held the fourth Civil Space Dialogue in Washington on Monday, where the two sides discussed efforts to expand cooperation in lunar exploration, satellite navigation, maritime domain awareness and other areas.
"There are more actors in the space nowadays. And more of the economic players are involved in this area. So it's important to have space norms," Han said.
"With our increased ability and capability, we are eager to contribute to setting those space norms." Han went on to say that as more and more players are involved in space-related economic activities, it is crucial to have a "secure, trusted and reliable" supply chain in space economy. "It's also important to have trusted partners and allies to have this secure supply chain," she said.
"I think the Korea-US alliance can make great contributions to forming this secure supply chain." In light of national security, the official noted Seoul's commitment not to conduct direct ascent anti-satellite missile tests following the US' announcement in 2022 not to carry out the tests amid concerns that ASAT tests would undermine the sustainability of outer space. "I think that's the area that we can focus on, helping our alliance move forward," she said.
Karen Feldstein, associate administrator at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Office of International and Interagency Relations, said that NASA has 23 agreements with 11 different institutions in South Korea. "It's one of the very few partnerships that span every one of our missile areas," Feldstein noted. She underscored the importance of the partnership with South Korea.
"We are cooperating with one another because it means our national interests," the NASA official said. "It furthers our priorities (and) builds and fuels our space economy." (Yonhap).
