U.S. the top buyer of S. Korean arms in 2006-10

By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Yonhap) -- The United States was the biggest buyer of South Korean arms during a five-year span with US$1.7 billion in deals, a state-run arms procurement agency said Wednesday.
Local weapons firms have mostly exported aircraft components and ammunitions to the U.S., South Korea's closest ally, from 2006 to 2010, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a report submitted for a parliamentary audit.
Next on the list were Turkey with $1 billion on purchases that included KT-1 trainers and Indonesia with $780 million on purchases that included T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic trainer jets, the DAPA said.
Other major buyers in the period were Malaysia ($397 million), Iraq ($329 million) and Pakistan ($119 million), said the report released by Rep. Seo Jong-pyo of the Democratic Party.
The total amount of exports soared to $1.1 billion last year, up from $253 million in 2006, it said. In the first half of the year, South Korean firms sold $681 million worth of weapons overseas.
The U.S. was the biggest supplier of weapons to Asia's fourth-largest economy in the cited period, trailed by Germany, Israel, England and Turkey, according to an earlier report by the DAPA.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
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