South Korea has set out seven strategic technology programmes it intends to pursue after artificial intelligence, including an uncrewed Moon landing by 2030, President Lee Jae-myung announced on Wednesday at a meeting of scientists, executives and investors at the presidential office.

The programmes, branded the “Seven Major SEED”, cover small modular reactors, nuclear fusion, next-generation renewable energy, quantum technology, space and aviation, advanced biotechnology, and critical minerals.

The Moon landing falls under the space pillar and drew the most attention, though it is not new policy.

The 2030 target applies to an uncrewed mission: a roughly 700kg robotic lander, developed by a public-private consortium and launched on South Korea’s domestically built Nuri rocket, with a budget of around 444.7bn won.

The date itself was set in early July by the Korea AeroSpace Administration, which brought the target forward from 2032 at a meeting of the National Space Committee, alongside a plan for a domestic low-Earth-orbit satellite network by 2035. Wednesday’s announcement folded that existing target into a broader presidential technology package.

“The seven SEED projects we are discussing today will become next-generation growth engines,” Lee said, adding that the country should “use the semiconductor industry’s golden opportunity to prepare for what comes after the AI era in advance”.

Bae Kyung-hoon, deputy prime minister and minister of science and ICT, said the government would “help these seeds grow and build a South Korea that no one can rival in 10 or 20 years”.

The other targets include small modular reactors in commercial use by 2035, fusion-based electricity generation in the late 2030s, a domestically built 100-qubit quantum computer by 2029, AI-bio infrastructure by 2030 and brain-computer interface products by 2035.

The government allocated 10 trillion won, about $7.1bn, for materials and equipment technology by 2030, but did not disclose a total budget for the package.

South Korea’s space programme is relatively young. Its first lunar orbiter, Danuri, launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in August 2022 and entered lunar orbit that December; the mission has been extended to the end of 2027.

The Nuri rocket has flown four times, failing partially on its 2021 debut and succeeding on each attempt since, most recently in November 2025. A domestic low-Earth-orbit satellite network of between 128 and 512 spacecraft is planned by 2035. KASA itself was established in May 2024.

The planned satellite network, sometimes likened to a domestic version of SpaceX’s Starlink, is projected to cost between 4 and 13.2 trillion won across successive phases.

The government has also begun handing Nuri launch operations to the private sector, with Hanwha taking a leading role, and a fifth Nuri flight is targeted for September.

The government has been explicit that the lunar mission is industrial in purpose. Roh Kyung-won, KASA’s vice administrator, has said the 2030 lander has “greater industrial purpose than scientific exploration”, with the aim of positioning Korean companies within NASA-led international lunar programmes.

South Korea has framed advanced technology as a matter of national competitiveness as its semiconductor industry faces intensifying rivals.

Lee has described scientific and technological capability as a primary measure of national power, and presented the seven programmes as the country’s bet on the industries that will follow the current AI boom.

The target is modest relative to other spacefaring nations. China is aiming to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030, NASA’s first crewed Artemis landing has slipped to 2028, and India is targeting a robotic sample-return mission the same year.

Japan soft-landed its SLIM probe in January 2024. A successful 2030 mission would make South Korea the sixth nation to land a working craft on the lunar surface.

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