Malaysia, South Korea discuss arms industry cooperation

The South Korea state arms procurement agency chief has held talks with Malaysia’s defence minister to expand arms industry cooperation, his office said on Monday, amid Seoul’s drive to clinch more defence deals with Southeast Asian countries.

Yonhap News Agency reported that the South Korean Minister of the Defence Acquisition Programme Administration (Dapa) Seok Jong Gun met Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin at the Defence Service Asia Exhibition and Conference in Kuala Lumpur last Tuesday.

According to a statement by Dapa, the two sides discussed current progress in South Korea’s exports of FA-50 light attack aircraft to Malaysia after Korea Aerospace Industries signed a deal last May to supply 18 FA-50s to Kuala Lumpur.

It said talks were held for more exports of the jet and it was agreed to explore possible exports of South Korea’s K239 Chunmoo rocket artillery systems and the Cheongung-II midrange surface-air-to missile system.

Seok also met defence officials from Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand for talks on ways to strengthen defence and arms industry cooperation, said the statement.

Dapa said Philippine officials expressed interest in South Korea’s KF-21 fighter jet, which is under development, FA-50 and submarines, while talks with Vietnamese officials focused on the K-9 self-propelled howitzer, which Vietnam has expressed interest in.

South Korea aims to secure US$20 billion (RM95 billion) worth of arms exports this year compared with US$14 billion (RM66 billion) of defence export contracts clinched last year.