DAMIN JUNG
South Korea took a bold step into space defense in December 2023, leveraging new technologies and the country’s long-running alliance with the United States to launch its first military surveillance satellite. After placing a military communication satellite into orbit in July 2020, Seoul’s newest endeavor builds its own space surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities while deepening cooperation with allies in related areas.
Historically dependent on the U.S. for satellite intelligence, South Korea has now developed a satellite capable of precise ground observation, according to Lee Jong-ho, minister of science and information and communication technologies. The country’s long-range plan calls for launching five large-scale intelligence satellites, which include four Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites, by 2025 under a contract with U.S.-based SpaceX. The satellite launched in December featured Electro-Optical Infrared (EO/IR) sensors.
The December launch came just a little over a week after North Korea claimed to have put its own spy satellite into orbit, sparking immediate condemnation from the U.S., South Korea and others. U.N. Security Council resolutions ban satellite launches by North Korea because they are viewed as covers for testing long-range missile technology.
As tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea continues to push forward with a broad reconnaissance plan. In addition to large-scale satellites, South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development is also developing ultra-small satellites with SAR technology.
Ultra-small SAR satellites can play an important role in supplementing larger satellites, Park Yong-han, an associate research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses’ Center for Security and Strategy, said. “Such medium- or large-sized satellites of the SAR-EO project could provide great resolution imagery of 30-50 centimeters, with no problem in surveillance during the day and night, and even in bad weather conditions,” Park said. “However, since it reconnoiters the skies over the Korean Peninsula [only] every two hours, gaps in the surveillance network are inevitable.” The small satellites would significantly fill the gaps, however.
New threats, new capabilities
South Korea’s efforts to develop its own satellite reconnaissance and other space capabilities are in response to a growing universe of threats. At the center remains the protracted but dynamic problem of North Korea and its nuclear weapons program and vast conventional forces.
But there are concerns about other threats from Pyongyang, including Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) weapons, which use a burst of electromagnetic energy to neutralize electronic equipment both on the ground and in space. Shin Jong-woo, a senior researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, also pointed to the hypersonic missiles being developed by both North Korea and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
“To counter hypersonic missiles, the most important thing is to swiftly integrate all the surveillance information from different assets,” Shin said. “The capability to intercept a ballistic missile is about acquiring accurate and precise intelligence that tells us the optimal position where we can strike the ballistic missile.”
Meanwhile, tensions have continued to mount between the PRC and the U.S. and its allies, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine adding to the backdrop of concerns in the Indo-Pacific region. Drone attacks have continued against Kyiv and the nation’s infrastructure throughout 2023, while Russian forces have dug in and control wide swaths of territory in the southeast.
Although the U.S. has historically led developments in military space technologies, the PRC and Russia both have made strides in anti-satellite warfare by executing test strikes on space targets despite the risks posed to satellites and crewed spacecraft alike.
Reconnaissance just a first step
The growing constellation of threats requires more than just better capabilities for reconnaissance of ground targets, according to Park of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. “As South Korea is planning to launch satellites spying on Earth, the country also needs to watch how other satellites or weapons are moving over the sky, to counter possible threats in the space domain,” Park said. “This is why the Republic of Korea Air Force created the Korea Air and Space Operations Center, to monitor satellites or weapons flying in space.”
The Korea Air and Space Operations Center (KAOC) was created in its current form in 2010, and in November 2023 plans to deploy an electro-optical satellite surveillance system. It also wants to enhance cooperation with the U.S. “Our short-term goal is to create conditions to perform our own space operations,” a Republic of Korea Air Force spokesman told Apogee. “To achieve that goal, we are in the stage of learning the know-how of the U.S. Space Force in terms of space situation management, while also receiving U.S. space surveillance information and participating in Global Sentinel exercises hosted by the U.S. Space Command, to improve our own space domain awareness.”
“Our long-term goal is to improve Korea’s surveillance capability of the space domain, by sequentially building space military assets such as space weather forecasting and warning systems, a satellite tracking system using high-power lasers, and a space monitoring system using radar,” the spokesman said. “We’re also aiming to contribute to ROK-U.S. joint operations by securing an ultra-small-sized satellite system, an early warning satellite system and a Korean-style navigation system.”
Cooperation with allies key
South Korea’s new space capabilities are being developed in close cooperation with its long-term allies, with Seoul and Washington having been engaged in intensive defense diplomacy related to space over the past several years. In April 2022, Cho Yong-geun, the South Korean defense ministry’s director of North Korea policy, and John D. Hill, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for space and missile defense, inked a crucial agreement on space security, vowing to “share intelligence about outer space, nurture space experts through training and exercises, and enhance interoperability for combined space operations.”
The agreement, which included a focus on space situational awareness for military purposes, came six months after the signing by South Korean Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Park In-ho and then-U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. Raymond of a memorandum of understanding to form a joint U.S.-South Korean space policy consultative body, under which the South Korean Air Force joined military drills led by the U.S. Space Force. There has also been a U.S.-South Korea Space Cooperation Working Group in operation since 2013.
Meanwhile, according to Bruce Bennett, a Korea expert and professor at the Pardee Rand Graduate School, cooperation between Seoul and Washington on space defense matters is being enhanced by the growing involvement of Japan, leading to a “trilateral cooperation on intelligence collection.” This arrangement was given weight by an agreement to share real-time data about North Korean missiles, announced by U.S. President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the November 2022 Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Analysts see the agreement as a strong sign of warming relations between Seoul and Tokyo following a chill during the final years of the administration of former South Korean President Moon Jae-in, when a bilateral intelligence-sharing pact was downgraded due to trade tensions and a standoff over World War II-era compensation.
The South Korean president has also spoken positively about the prospect of Seoul joining the Quad, the security partnership linking Australia, India, Japan and the U.S., which recently moved to include space among its areas of cooperation.
Casting a wider net
Just as South Korea’s planned constellation of ultra-small SAR satellites will help supplement its larger satellites, the country’s reconnaissance satellites are expected to prove valuable to the U.S. and other allies with broad space capabilities, contributing to the security of the larger Indo-Pacific region and beyond. “The key issue, of course, is trying to figure out where all of North Korea’s critical assets are located, and [even the U.S. doesn’t] have 24/7 coverage of absolutely everything in North Korea,” Bennett explained. “Korean analysts may well see some things that American analysts don’t see, especially over time, as they become more adept at monitoring things. So, this is a cooperative effort to produce a more comprehensive assessment of what’s going on in North Korea.”
The redundant capabilities that the U.S. and South Korea will field also offer better protection against anti-satellite threats, helping with the detection of potential anti-satellite weapon deployment, as well as the maneuvering of satellites being targeted, Bennett said.
Likewise, with the emerging threat of hypersonic missiles. “You’ve really got to be fast with hypersonics, so the more redundancy you’ve got, the better prepared you are. And, the more different views you have, [with] each radar looking from a different location, [the] more certainty of exactly where an adversary weapons system is, which allows you to then be able to track it so that potentially you can intercept it.” This is especially the case with North Korea, Bennett said, which traditionally has produced multiple missiles per launcher.
Beyond adding redundancy to a combined effort in space, Bennett said, South Korea will find value in having an independent capability of its own. “There’s a certain degree of concern on the Korean side about whether or not U.S. extended deterrence will continue to work forever for Korea, or whether there will be a point at which the United States will exercise some reluctance on what it’s willing to do,” Bennett explained. “[This] gives the Koreans capabilities such that if there ever is concern about the U.S. extended deterrent, they’ve still got the capabilities that they need.”