Unintended Consequences: Proliferation in South Korea

Seoul's fledgling space program has accelerated with a move to abandon a 1979 agreement with Washington that limited missile development. Motivated by economic, security and nationalistic concerns, Seoul is pursuing a highly indigenous space program — one that could defend the peninsula while lessening Seoul's dependency on the United States. South Korea's late entry into Northeast Asia's space race will spur commercial competition and may trigger increased regional missile proliferation. Ironically, the problem may not be so much North Korea as South Korea.