• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.127-150
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• 2020

A Basic Plan for the Promotion of Space Development (hereinafter referred to as "basic plan"), which prescribes mid- and long-term policy objectives and basic direction-setting on space development every five years, is one of the matters to be deliberated by the National Space Committee. Confirmed February 2018 by the Committee, the 3rd Basic Plan has a unique matter, compared to the 2nd Basic Plan. It is to construct "Korean Positioning System(KPS)". Almost every country in the world including Korea has been relying on GPS. On the occasion of the shooting down of a Korean Air flight 007 by Soviet Russia, GPS Standard Positioning Service has been open to the world. Due to technical errors of GPS or conflict of interests between countries in international relations, however, the above Service can be interrupted at any time. Such cessation might bring extensive damage to the social, economic and security domains of every country. This is why some countries has been constructing an independent global or regional satellite navigation system: EU(Galileo), Russia(Glonass), India(NaVic), Japan(QZSS), and China(Beidou). So does South Korea. Once KPS is built, it is expected to make use of the system in various areas such as transportation, aviation, disaster, construction, defense, ocean, distribution, telecommunication, etc. For this, a pan-governmental governance is needed to be established. And this governance must be based on the law. Korea is richly experienced in developing and operating individually satellite itself, but it has little experience in the simultaneous development and operation of the satellites, ground, and users systems, such as KPS. Therefore we need to review overseas cases, in order to minimize trial and error. U.S. GPS is a classic example.