President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting held at the presidential office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap
President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting held at the presidential office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday called for Cabinet members to come up with and review plans to launch a new control tower to bolster the country’s defense industry.

“The defense industry is our economy’s new growth momentum as well as a strong foundation of our defense capability,” Lee said, as he presided over a Cabinet meeting held in the morning.

“(I ask relevant Cabinet members) to review the launch of a new control tower for the growth of our defense industry … and put pan-governmental efforts into fostering talents, (expanding) investments into research and development and expanding overseas export channels,” he added.

Lee also urged Cabinet members to meet regularly and review arms export strategies. The meetings would be presided over by Lee himself, according to his campaign pledges.

Lee spotlighted the growth of the country’s arms exports through the latest defense export deal with Poland, secured by Seoul, involving South Korean-produced K2 tanks. The deal is estimated to be worth around 8.8 trillion won ($6.46 billion).

“During the 1950-53 Korean War, South Korea had zero tanks (produced by our own country), but in just 75 years, we were able to grow into a top 10 global arms exporter. Most recently, we signed a deal worth around 9 trillion won with Poland to export K2 tanks,” he said.

At a ceremony to mark the inaugural defense industry day in the afternoon, Lee stressed the need to "bolster the competitiveness" of military equipment and products produced here in line with the changes in the global security environment. The remark was made during an opening speech for a debate held as part of the event.


mkjung@heraldcorp.com