Space Pearl Harbor, National Space Strategy in the age of New Space: the Space Tripartite 

Kim Kwang-Jin 

(kwangkai@gmail.com) 

Researcher, 

the Sejong Institute 

Executive Summary

■ Questions raised

○ Among space approaches, there are civil space research, national science and technology research, military security such as the establishment of the space force, and economic activities in the international space market.

○ Scientific and technological research peacefully use space, military security activities militarily use space, and economic activities commercially use space.

○ Therefore, the national space development strategy requires peaceful, military, and commercial use of space.

○ In short, there needs to be the wisdom of the Space Tripartite, like Zhuge Liang’s tripartite strategy of the Three Kingdoms.

■ Category of space activities

○ Peaceful use of space: It refers to space exploration or scientific and technological research activities. Until now, South Korea’s space development policy has focused on the peaceful use of space centered on the development of science and technology.

○ Military use of space: the modern state-of-the-art military power is so heavily dependent on space that data loss from satellites would result in an effect of Space Pearl Harbor, like the attack on Pearl Harbor.

○ Commercial use of space: as technology innovation, costs related to space launch vehicles, and satellites have plummeted, the era of New Space, in which private companies earn commercial profits in the international space market, has begun.

■ National Interest Perspective on Space Development Strategy Model

○ For national interests, peaceful, military, and commercial use of space must be pursued.

○ Comprehensive space development policies can be divided into power-competitive strategies, alliance strategies, multilateral cooperation strategies depending on varying, strategic environments.

○ U.S. model (power-competitive strategy): seeks space hegemony and tends to strengthen deterrent capabilities in space with resilience and cooperation in order to maintain its existing space superiority

○ British model (alliance strategy): depends on the U.S. for military and intelligence in space and cooperates with other countries in science and industry

○ Japanese model (alliance strategy): as U.S. alliance, has developed its space power through cooperation with the U.S. since 2008

○ European model (multilateral cooperation strategy): focuses on commercial use of space for national economic growth based on multilateral cooperation within Europe.

○ South Korea should devise a comprehensive national space development strategy that can make peaceful, military, and commercial use of space, based on strategic environmental evaluation on the Korean Peninsula

■ Strategic Environment of the Korean Peninsula and Space Tripartite Plan

○ The ROK-U.S. alliance is an opportunity factor as the U.S. has today’s space hegemony.

○ The U.S.-China strategic competition and North Korea’s potential space threat must be considered to find new growth engines for the national economy in space.

○ It is necessary to actively utilize the ROK-U.S. alliance while developing science and technology under the current basic plan for space development.

○ Dividing roles within the ROK-U.S. alliance, South Korea should be able to respond to potential threats from North Korea in advance.

○ The South Korean government must participate in multilateral technological exchange and cooperation, strengthen domestic research and development, and engage in international space norms in order to secure South Korean companies’ technological competitiveness. a

○ Such can be concretized by the goals, methods, and capabilities of each field of space use.

○ An additional policy proposal may draw up a mid- to long- term capacity-building roadmap that prioritizes the common capabilities for peaceful, military, and commercial use of space.

○ In order to promote peaceful, military, and commercial use of space, the National Space Commission under the Prime Minister's direct control of science, technology, military security, and commerce should be established. 

※ Translator’s note: This is a third party’s unofficial translation of the original paper which was written in Korean. All references should be made to the original paper.