An FA-50 aircraft lands on an air base in Gunsan, 178 kilometers south of Seoul, in this file photo provided by the Defense Daily on April 19, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The chief of the state arms procurement agency has held talks with Malaysia’s defense minister on ways to expand arms industry cooperation, his office said Monday, amid Seoul’s drive to clinch more defense deals with Southeast Asian countries.
Seok Jong-gun, minister of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), met Malaysian Defense Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin on the margins of the Defence Service Asia Exhibition and Conference in Kuala Lumpur last Tuesday.
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, according to DAPA.
They also held talks on more exports of the jet and agreed to explore possible exports of South Korea’s K239 Chunmoo rocket artillery systems and the Cheongung-II mid-range surface-air-to missile system, it said.
Seok also met defense officials from Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand for talks on ways to strengthen defense and arms industry cooperation, according to DAPA.
Philippine officials expressed interest in South Korea’s KF-21 fighter jet under development, the FA-50, and submarines, while talks with Vietnamese officials focused on the K-9 self-propelled howitzer, which Vietnam has expressed interest in, it said.
South Korea aims to secure US$20 billion worth of arms exports this year, compared with $14 billion of defense export contracts clinched last year.
(Yonhap)
