South Korea Establishes New Branch to Bolster Space Capabilities

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) installed Military Space Branch on Saturday to bolster the country's space security capabilities.

The launch came as South Korea has been striving to craft space operation concepts and strategies based on inter-service cooperation amid an intensifying rivalry among major space powers in the emerging security domain.

Washington agreed to lift "missile guideline" restrictions in May 2021. The guideline had barred Seoul from developing or possessing ballistic missiles with a maximum range greater than 800km. The country plans to spend $1.38 billion in space technology development over the next decade.

"Space powers, including the United States, China, Russia and Japan, have been expanding budgets substantially to get the upper hand in the space domain and making all-out efforts to develop related technologies," the JCS was quoted as saying by the local media in a press release.

The JCS also stressed that a country's ability to use space is "directly linked" to its overall national capabilities.

The military has recently been stepping up efforts to devise inter-service space operations to enhance efficiency after all armed services had separately worked on their own concepts.