Watch: South Korea’s science minister visits space centre in Dubai

Dubai: South Korean Minister of Science and Information and Communications Technology Lee Jong-ho led a delegation who visited the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai on Wednesday.

They were welcomed by MBRSC director general Salem Humaid AlMarri, who tweeted: “I welcomed a South Korean delegation... Our partnership with South Korea dates back to the establishment of @MBRSpaceCentre with a knowledge transfer programme yielding our first two satellites.”

Cooperation in space between the UAE and South Korea dates back to 2006, when a group of young Emirati engineers, including AlMarri, visited South Korea to work together building satellites. The two countries partnered on developing DubaiSat-1 and DubaiSat-2.

In 2017, the UAE Space Agency signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with South Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, that further enhanced cooperation and knowledge exchange between the UAE and South Korea in space exploration sector, satellite remote sensing and navigation, as well as relevant regulations for space domain.

Bigger milestones

AlMarri added in his tweet “We have achieved a lot together with our South Korean partners, and today we want to build on these successes to accomplish bigger milestones.

In another tweet, AlMarri said: “South Korea is a special place for me; it was there where I started with a group of colleagues preparing for the first @MBRSpaceCentre mission in 2006.”

The visit by Lee to MBRSC on Wednesday is in line with the state visit conducted by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to the UAE.

On Sunday, the UAE Space Agency and Korea’s Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology exchanged an MoU related to the amendment the January 2017 agreement on space cooperation.

Both countries affirmed the importance of bilateral cooperation for the peaceful and sustainable use of space in a mutually beneficial manner.