The Blue House today (28th) said the revision of the US-ROK missile guidelines lifted restrictions on the use of solid fuel for space launch vehicles.

The second president of the National Security Office of the Blue House, Kim Hyun-jong, said in a briefing today, "As of July 28, 2020, as of today, the 2020 missile guidelines will be lifted to lift restrictions on the use of solid fuel for spacecraft."

With the revision of the missile guidelines, the development and production of civilian space launch vehicles using solid fuel will be free.

"All companies and research institutes in Korea and all individuals of Korean nationality can freely research, develop, produce, and possess various types of space launch vehicles, including solid fuels and hybrids, as well as existing liquid fuels." I explained.

The existing Korea-US missile guidelines have been limited to'one million pounds per second' in terms of space launch vehicles.

One million pounds/second is a unit required to carry 500kg or more over 300km.

In the meantime, 50 million or 60 million pounds/second are required to send a projectile into space, while the missile guidelines have limited the use of space to the level of 1/50, or 60/1 of the total energy required for a spacecraft.

"Under this constraint, it was virtually impossible to develop a meaningful solid fuel projectile," he said.

In response, President Moon Jae-in instructed the National Security Office in October last year to contact the White House National Security Council (NSC) to resolve the problem, and after nine months of intensive consultations between the United States and South Korea, the missile guidelines have been revised.

The Korea-US Missile Guidelines, created in 1979 to regulate Korea's ballistic missile development, have been revised three times.

This is the fourth revision.

Earlier, in September 2017, at the telephone conversation between President Moon and US President Donald Trump, the third revision was made to set the ballistic missile range to 800 km, but completely lift the warhead weight limit.

(Photo = Yonhap News)