MOSCOW, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Russia will train and launch South Korean cosmonauts on space missions, President Vladimir Putin said, according to a Moscow Times report Wednesday.
Putin made the pledge Tuesday following talks with visiting South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun, the paper said, citing an Interfax news agency report.
Under the program, Russia's Federal Space Agency will train cosmonauts from the free market, democratic Northeast Asian nation for space missions on board Russian spacecraft and then organize such missions, Interfax said.
Anatoly Perminov, the chief of the Federal Space Agency, told journalists a new agreement on space cooperation between Russia and South Korea allowed the two countries to work together "on joint projects and contracts on manufacturing and using civil space rocket systems, the news agency said.
The launch of South Korean cosmonauts in Russian spacecraft in 2007 "has in fact been decided upon," Perminov said.
