S. Korea joins International Charter on space, disasters

SEOUL, July 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's national aerospace research institute has become the newest member of an international group working to provide information, such as satellite images, to countries affected by natural or man-made disasters, the government said Thursday.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) became a full member of the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters, which now has 14 member institutes from 13 countries, including France's government-run space agency, CNES, and the Canadian Space Agency.
The International Charter was launched in 2000 under the leadership of CNES and the European Space Agency to help countries hit by natural or man-made disasters, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
South Korea sought to join the group in 2010, a move unanimously approved by the organization's board of directors, after the country provided detailed satellite images of Haiti that helped assess damage caused by a massive earthquake.
South Korea signed its official membership this week after yearlong preparations by KARI to establish communication and cooperation networks with related local organizations, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
South Korea currently has several satellites orbiting Earth, with three built to take pictures of Earth's surface.