Senior officials at South Korea’s newly established Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA) have reported their interactions with U.S. officials to the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), official records show.
John Lee, Vice Administrator of Mission Directorates at KASA, and Kim Hyun-dae, Director General of the Aeronautics Innovation Mission Directorate, both former NASA experts and U.S. citizens, submitted detailed accounts of their activities, including meetings and communications, as required under the 1938 U.S. law.
Lee filed his report on Jan. 31, while Kim submitted his on Feb. 28. Their disclosures include records of salaries, meetings, text messages, and emails exchanged with U.S. aerospace and government officials. Lee reported contacts from Aug. 24, 2024, to Jan. 24, 2025, including discussions with representatives from SpaceX and other entities about potential collaboration. He also sent emails to NASA officials thanking them for visiting KASA’s headquarters in Sacheon, South Korea, and exchanged messages with NASA researchers.
It is highly unusual for senior officials overseeing aerospace and defense research at a government agency to publicly disclose communications, including emails and text messages, along with the names of individuals involved.
FARA filings show that Lee reported 32 engagements, including interactions with Lockheed Martin, Axiom Space, Intuitive Machines, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and several U.S. universities. His activities also included a meeting with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in September 2024 and participation in the International Astronautical Congress, where he met with senior officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the U.S. State Department.
The records also show that Lee contacted Blue Origin, the space company founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Other disclosed interactions include an email to NASA Chief Data Officer Kevin Murphy in November 2024, thanking him for visiting KASA’s Sacheon headquarters, and a text message in January to Elsayed Talaat, a former office director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), congratulating him on his appointment as president of the Universities Space Research Association.
Lee reported receiving a monthly salary of $101,284 from KASA during the period.
Kim, the second-highest-ranking official in KASA’s aeronautics and space division, disclosed earnings of $69,150, including relocation expenses, along with a $429 monthly housing stipend.
Kim reported 13 interactions, primarily email exchanges with U.S. university professors and meetings with U.S. Space Force officers in South Korea. In November 2024, he met a Korean-American engineer at Boeing to discuss “job opportunities” and followed up via email two weeks later. The disclosure of personnel-related discussions by name is rare, though it remains unclear if the talks were related to recruitment.
FARA records also highlight KASA’s interest in international collaborations, including discussions with NOAA on solar sail technology and talks with NASA about potential lunar exploration projects.
KASA has stated that it reviews all U.S. filings to prevent the inclusion of classified information. However, the unprecedented level of transparency in disclosing high-level engagements has raised concerns. “KASA stands to benefit from hiring Korean-American experts, but no other major spacefaring nation publicly releases this level of detail about its officials’ activities,” a diplomatic source said.
Unlike the U.S., South Korea has no legal framework requiring individuals acting on behalf of foreign governments to disclose their activities. A ruling party lawmaker proposed a Korean equivalent of FARA in 2024, but progress has stalled. The National Intelligence Service has also signaled plans for similar legislation, though no bill has been introduced.
