• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.239-272
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• 2014

The rights and obligations of the Member States of ITU in the domain of international frequency management of the spectrum/orbit resource are incorporated in the Constitution and Convention of the ITU and in the Radio Regulations that complement them. These instruments contain the main principles and lay down the specific regulations governing the major elements such as rights and obligations of member administrations in obtaining access to the spectrum/orbit resource, as well as international recognition of these rights by recording frequency assignments and, as appropriate, any associated orbits, including the geostationary-satellite orbits used or intended to be used in the Master International Frequency Register (MIFR) Coordination is a further step in the process leading up to notification of the frequency assignments for recording in the MIFR. This procedure is a formal regulatory obligation both for an administration seeking to assign a frequency in its network and for an administration whose existing or planned services may be affected by that assignment. Regulatory problem lies in allowing administrations to fulfill their "bringing into use" duty for preserving his filing simply putting any satellites, whatever nationlity or technical specification may be, into filed orbit. This sort of regulatory lack may result in the emergence of the secondary market for satellite orbit. Within satellite orbit secondary market, the object of transaction may be the satellite itself, or the regulatory rights in rem, or the orbit registered in the MIFR. Recent case of selling the Koreasat belongs to the typical example of orbit transaction between private companies, the legality of which remains doubtedly controversial from the perspective of international space law as well as international transaction law. It must be noted, however, that the fact is the Koreasat 3 and its filed orbit is for sale.