Russia Ready to Help Put First South Korean in Space, Says Putin
Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS
Moscow, 21 September: Russian President Vladimir Putin has personally promised his South Korean counterpart, Roh Moo-hyun, that Russia will take on the task of preparing the flight of the first South Korean cosmonaut.
“Our plans include the preparation and organization of the flight of a South Korean cosmonaut in a Russian craft and cooperation in other areas of high-technology,” Putin said after talks in the Kremlin with his South Korean counterpart.
Roh Moo-hyun said that the agreement signed today on the peaceful use of space “will contribute towards the further development of cooperation with Russia on space and space technologies”. He was speaking to journalists after the talks.
The joint declaration signed by Putin and Roh Moo-hyun notes that the first South Korean cosmonaut will make a flight in 2007, and that Russia will help to train him for the mission.
“Taking into account the importance of bilateral cooperation on space technologies, the sides have welcomed the conclusion of a cooperation agreement on the exploration and peaceful use of space,” the declaration says. “They have agreed to continue collaboration on the development of a Korean system for civilian launches, and also on joint programmes on piloted work that are aimed at completing the training of the first cosmonaut from South Korean by 2007.”
During talks with the head of the Russian [Federal] Space Agency (Roskosmos), Anatoliy Perminov, South Korean Minister of Science and Technology Oh Myung said that South Korea was inspired to undertake the training for its own cosmonaut by the successful experience of the Mir orbital complex.
“Many years ago our country became interested in the Mir orbital station project which was successfully carried out in Russia. It was then that the desire arose to train our own cosmonaut and to put him into space,” Oh Myung said.
The official spokesman for Roskosmos, Vyacheslav Davidenko, told ITAR-TASS that “in the course of the meeting a joint statement was signed, in which the main areas of bilateral cooperation were set out”. “Apart from training a South Korean cosmonaut and the jointly developing a new booster rocket, it is proposed to established a joint enterprise for the production of microchips and mini- satellites,” Davidenko specified.
“The sides also agreed on plans to broaden cooperation, to draw up a joint long-term plan by the end of 2004 and to begin implementing it from the beginning of 2005,” noted Davidenko.