In mid-January, South Korea announced it intends to join the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) later this year, allowing Seoul access to rocket technology from other MTCR members. Two weeks later, the South Korean Ministry of Science and Technology announced the site chosen for South Korea's new civilian space center, an island on the coast of South Cholla province, that will be the base for satellite launches. Seoul's entry into the MTCR ends five years of negotiations with Washington to release South Korea from a 1979 memorandum of understanding governing missile development. Washington has long feared a South Korean ballistic missile program would accelerate missile proliferation in Northeast Asia and undermine regional security. Rather than stem missile development in Northeast Asia, the memorandum simply prompted South Korea to carry out a clandestine missile program as North Korea, China, Taiwan and Japan developed missile and rocket technology.