President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Tuesday that space cooperation between South Korea and the United States will be strengthened into a space alliance.

The president made the remark during a visit to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, outside Washington, saying that efficiency and greater synergy can be achieved in the space sector through solidarity and cooperation between the two countries.

Joined by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on the tour of the facility, Yoon said that South Korea is launching the Korea AeroSpace Administration, or KASA, a new agency similar to NASA that will oversee the country's space economy.

The president said that space cooperation between the two nations will be further strengthened into a space alliance through KASA and NASA.

He expressed hope that the two agencies will discover and launch joint research and development programs while building a communication platform for active exchanges of people, information and knowledge as cooperative partners.

Yoon added that the South Korea-U.S. alliance will expand beyond the Earth into space, and that such a partnership will not be limited to technology and the economy in the sector but will expand to space security.

South Korea's science and ICT ministry and NASA signed a joint statement on Tuesday on cooperation on space exploration and space science.