Korea to the Moon Options

[Paolo]

The 23 October issue of the French magazine "Air et Cosmos" has a nice 5-pages article on South Korean space (plus a one-page update on ExoMars).
It also includes mentions of South Korean unmanned moon flights. An orbiter could be flown in 2020 and a lander in 2025. At the latest IAC congress in Daejeon the president of the KARI space agency Joo-Jin Lee presented the plan. Using an SKM solid fuel upper stage the KSLV-II launcher could inject 550 kg toward the Moon.
The use of 2 KSLV-IIs, one for a orbiter, the second for a lander, could also provide for a low-cost sample return mission.
In any case, any lunar exploration program still has to be approved by the Korean government.

I can't stop wondering what the North could be up to if the South really launched a lunar mission (provided of course it will still exist by the 2020s...)