Seoul sold over $1b of weapons

Seoul sold over $1 billion worth of weapons and defense articles to over 50 nations this year, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said yesterday.

With the sales, the nation is expected to become one of the world`s 15 largest weapons exporters, up from its current ranking of 17th place, the agency officials said.

This is the first time the country exported more than $1 billion worth of defense goods since the sale of some $470,000 in rifle ammunition to Indonesia, the Philippines and the United States over 30 years ago, when it first started to sell such items.

The bulk of the record volume was composed of some $4 billion worth of a joint project concerning technology support to Turkey for building tanks.

DAPA, which opened in 2006, said it aims to become an advanced defense-exporter by 2012 with $3 billion of exports, but some officials said that goal appears to be unrealistic.

The agency noted that the volume of defense exports amounted to $844 million last year, up from the annual average of $250 million before that.

"Now we have hit the $1 billion mark despite a global economic downturn," said Col. Lee Hyun-soo, director of DAPA`s export support division.

"We are not yet certain of how we have done this year in terms of global ranking, but we have much reason to believe that we have exported a considerable volume, especially since we don`t think most other nations did so well due to the economic troubles," he said.

Lee also said the agency will try to diversify its sales partners, as most of the exports so far were to the Middle East or Africa.

The agency is currently seeking to sell its indigenous training jet T/A-50 and its next generation main battle tank K-2.

By Kim Ji-hyun



(jemmie@heraldm.com)