South Korea’s race to become one of the world’s biggest arms dealers
South Korea is using a $13.7 billion arms deal with Poland - Seoul’s biggest ever - to lay the groundwork for a militaryindustrial juggernaut that the two nations’ defence companies hope will feed Europe’s hunger for weapons far into the future. South Korea’s arms sales jumped to more than $17 billion in 2022 from $7.25 billion the year before, according to its defence ministry, as Western countries scrambled to arm Ukraine and tensions rose in other hot spots such as North Korea and the South China Sea.
The arms deal with Poland, a key NATO member, last year included hundreds of Chunmoo rocket launchers, K2 tanks, K9 self-propelled howitzers, and FA-50 fighter aircraft. The deal’s value and the number of weapons involved made it stand out even among the world’s biggest defence players. South Korean and Polish officials say their partnership will help them conquer the European arms market even beyond the Ukraine war, with Seoul providing highquality weapons faster than other countries and Poland offering manufacturing capacity and a sales pipeline into Europe. Reuters spoke to 13 company executives and government officials, including those directly involved in the deal, who said the arrangement provides a blueprint for using international public-private partnerships and consortiums to extend Seoul’s reach and achieve its ambition to be one of the world’s biggest weapons suppliers.
“The Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and others were thinking of buying defence products only in Europe, but now it is more well known that you can buy at a low price and have it delivered quickly from Korean companies,” said Oh Kyeahwan, a director at Hanwha Aerospace who was involved in the Poland deal.
South Korean companies do not disclose the unit prices for their weapons, which are often sold with support vehicles and spare parts.