Originally posted by chosun.com:

U.S. to Lift Cap on Range of South Korean Rockets

January 29, 2020 11:47

The U.S. has agreed to lift caps on the range and force of civilian South Korean rockets. That could remove a major obstacle to Korea's goal of developing a solid-fuel rocket capable of putting a satellite in geosynchronous orbit.

Government sources said Tuesday that negotiations between the U.S. and South Korean governments to revise missile guidelines have reached the final stage of ironing out the details to ease thrust and range limits on civilian rockets using solid-fuel boosters.

The U.S.-South Korean missile guidelines from 1979 had been revised three times -- in 2001, 2012 and 2017 -- but limits remained in place capping their thrust at 1 million pounds per second, which is just 1/10 of the thrust of rockets used by advanced countries, and their range at 800 km.

The two sides have held behind-the-scenes negotiations about another revision since 2018. The caps have come in for increasing criticism at a time when North Korea is developing long-range, solid-fuel missiles.

Scrapping the limits will give South Korea's civilian space program a considerable boost. Solid-fuel rockets are simpler to design and cheaper to build than liquid-fueled ones as well as being easier to transport and launch because there is no need to pump in fuel.

The U.S. maintained the caps because it did not want South Korea to use the technology to build missiles for military use. But South Korea promised to use them only for civilian purposes and reasoned that the South lags far behind its neighbors in terms of rocket technology.

There are concerns that scrapping the limits could incite protests from China and North Korea, but a government source said, "Inter-Korean relations have nothing to do with revised missile guidelines for our civilian space program."

U.S. to Lift Cap on Range of South Korean Rockets[web.archive.org]
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Originally posted by Yonhap News Agency:

Lifting of U.S. missile restrictions signifies Seoul's missile sovereignty, Washington's China strategy: experts

09:54 May 22, 2021

SEOUL, May 22 (Yonhap) -- The full lifting of U.S. restrictions on South Korean missiles is expected to beef up Seoul's defense capabilities by allowing it to secure longer-range missiles that can fly beyond the Korean Peninsula, experts said Saturday.

The decision is also seen as part of the U.S. strategy to counter China, and South Korea's deployment of longer-range missiles could bring the country further into the great power game between Washington and Beijing, the experts said.

Following a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, President Moon Jae-in announced their decision to scrap the bilateral "missile guidelines," which ban South Korea from developing or possessing ballistic missiles with a maximum range greater than 800 kilometers.

Moon hailed the lifting as a "symbolic and substantive" demonstration of the robustness of the alliance.

"The decision means the removal of 'security shackles' for South Korea and allows us to fully regain our missile autonomy. Longer-range missiles will help boost our defense power and diplomatic leverage," a former senior defense ministry official said.

The missile restrictions were first introduced in 1979 as South Korea sought to secure U.S. missile technologies for its own missile development. In return, Seoul agreed to limit the maximum flight range of its missiles to 180 km and the weight of warheads to 500 kg.

In the face of evolving nuclear and missile threats by North Korea, however, Seoul and Washington revised the guidelines four times through last year to extend the range to 800 km, scrap the limit on warhead weight and lift the ban on using solid fuel for space launch vehicles.

Now that all those restrictions have been terminated, South Korea can develop and possess any type of missile, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and advanced submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).

"Longer ranges mean that we can launch missiles from safer locations in the rear, which will give us greater strategic flexibility and enable us to better prepare for threats from North Korea and others," he said.

Currently, the ground-based missile Hyunmoo-4 boasts the longest flight range of 800 km among homegrown missiles. The weapon with a 2-ton payload was successfully developed last year.

Professor Huh Hwan-il of Chungnam National University also pointed to its impact on the space science field, saying that the advance in missile technologies will positively affect space rocket projects and that "no conditions mean that scientists can be more creative."

Experts also call for paying attention to what the U.S. seeks to gain through the latest move, with some raising concerns over its possible impact on the relations between Seoul and Beijing.

"Missiles with a maximum range of 800 km can reach any part of North Korea when fired from our territory. So, the U.S. flexibility indicates that it sees beyond the Korean Peninsula," Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at Korea Aerospace University, said. Beijing and Seoul are around 950 km apart.

The U.S. has been working to establish air defense systems in the Asia-Pacific region to maintain deterrence against China.

For the goal, the U.S. withdrew in 2019 from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia, and has been trying to deploy intermediate-range missiles in Asia and other parts of the world, which sparked strong opposition from Beijing and Moscow.

"Under the circumstances, the enhancement of missile capabilities by its allies will surely be in the interests of the U.S.," Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University, said.

Kim Heung-kyu, professor of Ajou University, even warned that South Korea may again experience frayed ties with Beijing, just as it did in 2016 when it decided to host the U.S. missile defense system of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).

"We could be further embroiled in the escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing. How to strike a balance is quite a tall order," he said.

Lifting of U.S. missile restrictions[web.archive.org]
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Well, after Japan's Epsilon rocket, this makes another one with dual-use civilian-military, latent ICBM capabilities!

Which begs the question, of which nation will be targeted by South Korea with the tacit accord of the U.S.A., at more than 5'000 km distance? Probably the same as Japan.

Indeed, the Hyunmoo-4 MRBM can already strike at 1'500 km distance with a 1-ton warhead, a range similar to the North Korean Hwasong-7.

Beijing being only separated from Seoul by a 950 km distance, there is only a few possible capitals beyond the 5'000 km ICBM mark range: both Moscow or Tehran!

Moreover, the absence of strong reaction from Beijing to the announcement of the lifting of U.S. missile restrictions confirms that the PRC is not under threat by Seoul's new ICBM capability.

ICBM range from ROK[archive.ph]
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After China, Japan, and North Korea, it will be the 4th military power with such capability in East Asia.

While this year the Republic of China (R.O.C.) will also access to satellite launch capability and solid propellant ballistic missile capability of its own with more than 2'000 km range!

Making proliferation of WMD in 2021 faster than the spread of COVID-19!


Oct 22, 2021

Following the Japanese strategy of developing dual-use civilian-military space technologies, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has now disclosed its first solid propellant ICBM.

Similar in dimension and performance to the Japanese solid propellant Epsilon SLV/ICBM, the Hanhwa GEO orbit space launcher will provide the ROK with new strategic capabilities - enough to put Moscow within striking range!

Notice that the civilian SLV version has 8 more solid propellant strap-on boosters added to the core stage.

Exhbition model of Hanhwa Geo SLV[web.archive.org]
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Twitter link[web.archive.org]
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To complete the ICBM program the ROK will need to achieve the following milestones:

• Test a reentry vehicle
  
• Test a nuclear warhead
  
• Test MIRVs
  
• Test a Post Boost Vehicle (PBV). This will be done under the cover of the KLEP's lunar mission as an orbiter then in the phase 2 as a lunar lander, the same way as India, Israel, Turkey and Iran do.

Supporting Korea's Lunar Exploration Program (KLEP), the completion of the deep space tracking ground station, which is the largest in Korea, with a single dish radio antenna of 35 meters diameter!

The deep space ground station plans to play a key role in performing space exploration missions by communicating with the Korean lunar orbiter, which will operate on the moon at a distance of about 384'400 km, and controlling its trajectory for lunar orbit insertion.

Supporting Korea's Lunar Exploration Program (KLEP), the completion of the deep space tracking ground station. Dec 11, 2020[web.archive.org]
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KARI Twitter link[web.archive.org]
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And according to the old WMD proliferators' playbook, following Japan, India and Israel, South Korea will test dual-use civilian-military technologies of Post Boost Vehicle an essential component of its nuclear deterrent, under the guise of a lunar orbiter in July 2022!

Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO)

Originally posted by nasa.gov:

The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) is South Korea's first lunar mission. It is developed and managed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and is scheduled to launch in July 2022 to orbit the Moon for 1 year carrying an array of South Korean experiments and one U.S. built instrument. The objectives are to develop indigenous lunar exploration technologies, demonstrate a "space internet", and conduct scientific investigations of the lunar environment, topography, and resources, as well as identify potential landing sites for future missions.

Spacecraft and Subsystems

The spacecraft has a cubic shape with two solar panel wings and a parabolic antenna mounted on a boom. The total mass is 550 kg. Communications are via S-band (telemetry and command) and X-band (payload data downlink). Power (760 W at 28 V) is provided through the solar panel arrays and rechargeable batteries. A monopropulsion system is used, with four 30N orbital maneuver thrusters and four 5N attitude control thrusters. KPLO is equipped with five science instruments and a Disruption Tolerant Network experiment. The five experiments are a Lunar Terrain Imager (LUTI), a Wide-Angle Polarimetric Camera (PolCam), a Magnetometer (KMAG), a Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (KGRS), and a high-sensitivity camera developed by NASA (ShadowCam). Total scientific payload mass is about 40 kg.

Mission Profile

KPLO is scheduled to launch in July 2022 from Cape Canaveral on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 into a 300 km Earth orbit, followed by a translunar injection burn and a one month lunar transfer phase. After capture into an elliptical lunar orbit, it will circularize to a 100 km nominal polar orbit (+-30 km), from which it will conduct science operations for approximately one year. If the mission has an extended phase, it will descend to a 70 km orbit or lower.

Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO)[web.archive.org]
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Ballistic Lunar Transfert[web.archive.org]
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Twitter link[web.archive.org]
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