US and South Korea sign space cooperation agreement during summit

WASHINGTON: NASA and South Korea’s science agency are set to sign an agreement on Tuesday (April 25) aimed at facilitating cooperation between the two countries in outer space, a White House official said. Security ties to deter North Korea.

The agreement comes as South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol makes his first state visit to Washington in 12 years for a bilateral summit this week marking the 70th anniversary of the US-South Korea alliance.

NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and South Korea’s Science and ICT Secretary Lee Jong-ho said they would sign a joint statement on cooperation on space exploration and science at the US Space Agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland on Tuesday. said a White House official. said a NASA official.

The joint statement, signed before a visit to Goddard with President Yun and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, confirms the two countries’ objectives to cooperate in several areas such as space communications, space-based navigation and lunar research. is what you do. A White House official said.

In recent years, as global military activity surges in Earth orbit and civilian space exploration re-emerges as an important tool of diplomacy, South Korea has moved closer to U.S. space efforts while maintaining its own space and launch capabilities. I have developed my abilities.

In 2021, Seoul will sign the Artemis Accords, a US-led bilateral agreement. It sets out a code of conduct in space and on the moon, and last year launched the South Korean Pathfinder lunar orbiter aboard a SpaceX rocket to conduct scientific observations in lunar orbit.

U.S. Forces Korea set up a space force in the country in December tasked with monitoring, detecting and tracking missile incursions, after South Korea set up its own space force as part of its air force that same month.