Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

ROK, US defense ministries hold 18th ROK-US Space Cooperation Working Group

On April 25, 2022, the defense ministries of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States (US) held the 18th ROK-US director-level Space Cooperation Working Group (SCWG) in Washington D.C.

This meeting was attended by Cho Yong-geun, ROK defense ministry’s director of North Korea policy, and John D. Hill, US defense ministry’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, as representatives of their respective sides.

At the meeting, the ROK and US representatives reached their first agreement on the ｢ROK-US joint space policy research｣ to advance space policy in terms of the ROK-US alliance.

At the 14th SCWG session in February 2020, the ROK first proposed the ｢ROK-US joint space policy research｣. The two sides have worked on this in various ways for about two years since, even in the COVID-19 crisis, and eventually signed it at the 18th SCWG.

｢ROK-US joint space policy research｣ is the first official document between the defense ministries of the two countries to set a direction for the allies’ space security policies. It includes a series of projects aimed at strengthening the allies’ capacity to counter growing space security threats.

In line with the document, the two sides agreed to continue defense and space cooperation in sharing intelligence for a common understanding of the space domain, nurturing space experts through training and exercise, and enhancing interoperability for combined space operations, with the aim of achieving the strategic value of space cooperation and strengthening joint space capabilities.

The two sides also agreed to closely check the progress of the ｢ROK-US joint space policy research｣ and actively push ahead with it, in order to embody it in a practical policy by holding the SCWG on a regular basis.