North Korea’s rocket launch last week created a stir across the world. The Stalinist regime says the Unha-3 rocket was intended to put a satellite into orbit but the world sees the act as cover for a test of long-range missile technology.
But the rocket launch came as a shock to South Koreans in a somewhat different meaning ― their affluent country is lagging far behind the impoverished North in space technology.
Given that ballistic missiles and rockets for satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology, Seoul is presumed to be 7 to 10 years behind Pyongyang in this area. Some experts see the gap as more than 10 years.
South Koreans’ frustrations deepened in late November, when Naro-1, the country’s first satellite carrier, was halted just 17 minutes before the scheduled blastoff. It was the second time the most recent launch attempt was suspended after Seoul suffered consecutive failures in 2009 and 2010.
But even a successful launch of Naro-1 would not have been testament to the advanced level of South Korea’s rocket technology because the more crucial first stage of the two-stage rocket was manufactured by Russia.
The main stumbling block for Seoul’s rocket technology development is a missile agreement with the U.S. Under a 2001 accord with Washington, Seoul had been barred from deploying missiles with a range of more than 300 kilometers and a payload of more than 500 kilograms because of concerns about a regional arms race. A new agreement signed in October allowed South Korea to have missiles with a range of up to 800 kilometers.
Equally disappointing is that South Korea’s budget for space development is too small. For this year alone, only 240 billion won was allocated for space technology, compared with the North’s billions of dollars for nuclear weapons and rocket technology.
It doesn’t make sense that South Koreans should be envious of North Korea’s rocket launch, given the wide gap in national power between the two nations.
The South Korean government has a plan to develop its own indigenous three-stage, liquid-fueled rocket capable of carrying a 1.5-ton payload into orbit by 2021. And it’s encouraging that both the ruling and opposition parties show strong commitment to developing rocket technology.
But what is needed is pooling wisdom to arouse national attention to space development. In this regard, Seoul needs to learn lessons from repeated failures suffered by neighboring countries.
Last but not least, our policymakers must do their utmost to persuade Washington to understand Seoul’s desperate need to develop rocket technology. The North’s rocket launch will be significant enough to seek cooperation from the U.S.