South Korea signs Artemis space exploration agreement l KBS WORLD
YONHAP News
South Korea signed the Artemis Accords, a US-led agreement on principles for cooperation for the peaceful exploration and use of space. The Ministry of Science, Information Technology and Communications announced Thursday.
At the last summit, South Korea and the United States agreed that South Korea would participate in the Artemis Accords.
The Artemis program is a NASA space project in cooperation with international partners. The aim of the program is for astronauts to land on the moon for the first time since Apollo 17. The Artemis Agreement defines principles for peaceful cooperation between signatory nations in space exploration, planetary research and space technology.
The agreement was signed last October by NASA and seven countries participating in the Artemis program, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Italy and the United Kingdom. After that, Ukraine became the ninth country to join the convention. South Korea is the tenth signatory country.
South Korea is already working with NASA in a number of ways. The Korean Space Agency (KARI) is working with NASA to develop the Lunar Orbiter KPLO (Korean Lunar Pathfinder Orbiter), which is scheduled to be launched in August 2022.
The lunar probe is equipped with a shadow camera developed by NASA, which imaging and analyzing the permanently shaded polar regions of the moon. Based on the recordings, a suitable landing site for the Artemis mission will be identified in the south pole of the moon. The Antarctic region has been of strategic importance since the discovery of water ice there. Thus, South Korea will make an important contribution to the Artemis Program.
Accession to the Artemis Agreements is expected to give an additional boost to the development of space technology in South Korea with the abolition of missile guidelines.
"South Korea and China are comrades who went through and overcame the hardships of the modern history together. I hope my visit to China will serve as a starting point to upgrade bilateral ties by another dimension based upon our comradely trust. As South Korea and China defeated the colonial imperialism, I hope we can overcome the current crisis of the North East Asia together."
Moon said a nuclear North Korea cannot be accepted under any circumstances and once again stressed dialogue with North Korea.
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