A high-level meeting was held for the first time since the launch of the Trump administration’s second term to explore cooperation plans between South Korea and the United States in the space sector.
The Aerospace Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the “4th Korea-US Civil Space Dialogue” was held on April 14th (local time) in Washington, D.C. This event marks the first high-level official bilateral space dialogue hosted by the United States since the launch of the Trump administration’s second term.
From Korea, John Lee, Director of the Aerospace Agency’s Space Mission Headquarters, and Han Min-young, Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Climate Environment Science Diplomacy Bureau, served as the joint chief representatives. Representing the U.S. were Rahima Kandahari, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science, Technology, and Space at the State Department, and Karen Feldstein, Director of NASA’s Office of International Cooperation.
The two countries discussed increasing Korea’s participation in the Artemis program and cooperation on the Lagrange L4 mission. Additionally, South Korea agreed to expand its support in missions such as NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) and NOAA’s SWFO-L1 (Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1).
NASA IMAP’s main mission objective is to study the boundaries of the heliosphere to understand the interaction between solar wind and the interstellar medium. NOAA’s SWFO-L1 aims to improve the ability to predict space weather by monitoring solar wind and Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) in real-time.
Discussions were also held on strengthening interoperability between Korea’s developing Korean Positioning System (KPS) and the U.S.’ GPS system. Plans for Korea to participate in the U.S.-led Landsat 2030 international partnership and satellite information sharing between the two countries were also discussed. The next meeting will be held in South Korea in 2027.
John Lee, Director of the Aerospace Agency, stated, “With the opening of the Aerospace Agency, space cooperation between South Korea and the U.S. is becoming more focused on space science and exploration,” adding, “In the future, we hope that space cooperation between the two countries will expand into various fields such as technology, industry, security, and policy.”