South Korea’s race to become one of world’s biggest arms dealers

Top producer: Two Paladin self-propelled Howitzers in a Combined Resolve 18 exercise in southern Germany. Given the limited production capacity of Germany’s defence industry, experts believe it could work in South Korea’s favour. — AFP

SEOUL: South Korea is using a US$13.7bil (RM60bil) arms deal with Poland - Seoul’s biggest ever - to lay the groundwork for a military-industrial 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 US$17bil (RM78.4) in 2022 from US$7.25bil (RM33.4bil) 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.