US military creates space unit in S. Korea to watch North

By HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The U.S. military has formally launched a space force unit in South Korea, its first such facility on foreign territory that will likely enable Washington to better monitor its rivals North Korea, China and Russia. The activation of the U.S. Space Forces Korea at Osan Air Base near Seoul came after North Korea test-fired a barrage of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles designed to strike the U.S. mainland and its allies South Korea and Japan in recent months. The unit belongs to the U.S. Space Force, which was launched in December 2019 under then-President Donald Trump as the first new U.S. military service in more than 70 years. It’s a subordinate of a bigger U.S. Space Force unit established within the Indo-Pacific command in Hawaii last month.