South Korea to Hold Largest Defense Show
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – South Korea will kick off its largest-ever defense exhibition this week, as the country seeks to turbocharge its arms sales.
The biennial Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (Adex) opens its doors on Tuesday, with organizers saying there will be more companies than ever and an unprecedented flyby from a US B-52 bomber, which will make a rare landing at an airbase elsewhere on the peninsula, Reuters reported.
This year’s show is designed to help South Korea to reach its goal of becoming the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter, Lee Jong-ho, chief of the organizing office, told a briefing on Monday.
More than 450 senior defense officials from 54 countries are expected to attend, along with hundreds of thousands of other professionals and members of the public, he said.
“This is an opportunity for Korea’s defense industry to draw international attention and take a giant leap forward,” Lee said.
The Korean government has set a goal of reaching US$20 billion in defense exports this year after sealing a record US$17.3 billion in arms sales last year, including huge deals with Poland for tanks, howitzers, warplanes, and rockets.
South Korea has been roughly ninth in the world for defense exports in recent years, but President Yoon Suk-yeol has called for it to improve.
Under Yoon, South Korea and the US have stepped up displays of strength, particularly US nuclear-capable assets, in an effort to deter North Korea.
Last month South Korea staged a rare military parade, in which thousands of troops and South Korea’s home-grown tanks and self-propelled artillery were joined by 300 of the 28,500 US soldiers based in the country.
A South Korean activist group said it planned to protest the event, calling the arms trade a “parasite” that benefits from the suffering in places such as Ukraine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
