• Title/Summary/Keyword: Space Weaponization

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Legal Status of Space Weaponization (우주공간에서의 무기배치와 사용의 법적 지위)

  • Shin, Hong-Kyun
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.32 no.2
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    • pp.247-276
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    • 2017
  • The protection of space asset has been new major cause of space militarization. For such purpose, it has been officially announced that a policy of deterring and denying any adversaries from accessing the outer space. Space militarization is to be conversed into a new concept of space weaponization. The USA has announced its policy of space weaponization, while China and Russia have not revealed their plan or policy. Latter States, however, have proposed a draft treaty limiting the deployment of warfare in the outer space. The terms of the Outer Space Treaty, reflecting three significant United Nations General Assembly resolutions from the 1960s, support the position that ground rules must be observed in the exploration and the use of outer space, particularly in the absence of specific space law rules. Yet the combination (and culmination) of these two approaches to the legal regulation of outer space-specific rules as and when agreed by the international community and the translation of principles developed for terrestrial regulation to outer space-still leaves much room for uncertainty and exploitation for military and strategic purposes. As space weaponization may contribute to deterring the use of weapon, it may be not against the UN Charter Article 2(4). If space weaponization might generate the space debris such that the outer space is no more available for exploration and use, it is against the proportionality principle and discrimination principle enshrined in the laws of the war. But, if the limitation upon the kind and use of space weaponization is agreed among the States, then the space weaponization may not be against the laws of the war, and be considered permissible within the rationale of limited war.

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Militarization and Weaponization of Outer Space in International Law

  • Kim, Han-Taek
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.33 no.1
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    • pp.261-284
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    • 2018
  • The current international legal system does not provide a safeguard against the militarization and the weaponization of outer space. Although the term "peaceful use of outer space" in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty(OST) appears in official government statements or in multilateral space treaties, it is still without an authoritative definition in reviewing national practices. The ambiguous ban on weapons in Article IV of the OST allows countries to loophole on the deployment of other weapons other than nuclear weapons. Meanwhile "Draft Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapon in Outer Space and of the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects(PPWT)" to Conference on Disarmament (CD) commissioned by the UN General Assembly's Special Session jointly submitted by China and Russia in 2008 and later revised in 2014, attempting to define and prohibit the proliferation of weapons in outer space and provided definitions of prohibited weapons, are opposed by the US on the grounds that currently there is no arms race in outer space. Some experts support a hard law approach in which binding laws aimed at ultimately creating integrated and binding legal instruments in all aspects of the use of outer space should be adopted to regulate the military use of space. However as a temporary measure the soft law guidelines should be developed for the non liquiet, a situation where there is no applicable law. The soft law could be used to create support for the declaration of the treaties and to create international customary law. For example, the 1963 Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space that regulates the activities of the state in the exploration and use of the universe, and the 1992 Principles Relevant to the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space will illustrated. While substantial portions of the former was codified later in the 1967 OST, the latter which, although written in somewhat mandatory terms, have been consistently complied with by states, have arguably become part of customary international law. On November 12, 1974, the General Assembly reaffirmed that the development of international law may be reflected inter alia, by declarations and resolutions of the General Assembly which may to that extent be taken into consideration by the International Court of Justice.

Current Issues & Prospects of International Space Law

  • Zwaan, Tanja Masson
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.237-259
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    • 2010
  • This paper first gives a brief overview of the history of space law making in the international geopolitical context and recalls some of the main principles as elaborated in the framework of the United Nations. Next, several topics are discussed that will require the attention of space lawyers in the near future. They are the International Space Station, space debris, exploitation of space resources, space tourism, private property rights in space, and militarization and weaponization of space. The paper raises some questions in each of these areas that need to be addressed and concludes that the general legal framework for space activities under public international law as contained in the UN treaties is in place, and is sufficiently general and flexible to enable and encourage states to carry out space activities in an orderly manner. However, as demonstrated by the examples discussed in the paper, the time has come for the international community to agree on the further development of these general principles, starting perhaps with space debris, imminent 'new' uses of space such as space tourism, or some of the 'age old' issues such as the weaponisation of outer space that will continue to require our attention and vigilance. Whether such rules can be in the form of non binding guidelines, codes of conduct and the like, or should be embodied in solid legal instruments creating rights and obligations remains to be seen.

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Forty years of the Outer Space Treaty : the problem inherent in governing the weaponization of the outer space (우주조약 체결 40년 : 우주의 군사적 이용 규율 문제)

  • Shin, Hong-Kyun
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.23 no.2
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    • pp.207-223
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    • 2008
  • The launching of the Taepo-dong 1 on 31 August 1998 by the North Korea was the first case where the diplomatic protests was made against the flight, the purpose of which, the launching State claimed, consisted in space exploration and use. It is the principle regarding the freedom of space exploration and use, as included in the international treaty, that is relevant in applying the various rules and in defining the legal status of the flight. Its legal status, however, was not actually taken into account, as political negotiations leading to the test moratorium has been successful until present day in freezing the political crisis. This implies that the rules of the law lack the validity and logic sufficient in dictating the conduct of the States. This case shows that, in effect, it is not the rule but the politics that is to govern the status of the flight.

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A Study on the Restructuring Global Production Space of Korean Rechargeable Battery Companies (한국 이차전지기업의 글로벌 생산공간 재구성 연구)

  • Ja-Yeong Choe
    • Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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    • v.25 no.4
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    • pp.499-513
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    • 2022
  • This study targets the rechargeable battery industry, which has been rapidly growing recently. The rechargeable battery industry is closely related to the electric vehicle industry. However, other factors also influence it. Currently, rechargeable battery companies show a pattern of restructuring production space by various means. To determine the causes of these production spaces, the factors affecting regional and national scales were thoroughly examined. As a result, the location factors for rechargeable battery-related companies are determined by cooperative relationships with assembled car companies, government policy regulations, and the stability of supply of key materials. And a spatial strategy was implemented to make the most of these circumstances.