From cars to missiles: what weapons does South Korea produce

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that the first units of the North Korean army will enter the battle on October 27 or 28. Against the background of these messages, the Republic of Korea is also developing its plan for a symmetrical response. Among them, the most realistic option is the lifting of the tacit moratorium on the supply of South Korean-made weapons to Ukraine. “Navy 2017” decided to take a closer look at the defense industry of the Republic of Korea.

The South Korean military-industrial complex has gone from producing copies or licensed variants of foreign weapons to being able to produce its own modern weapons. In particular, in 2020, four South Korean defense companies entered the Top-100 best defense companies in the world. These are Hanwha (32nd place), Korea Aerospace Industries (55th place), LIG ​​Nex1 (68th place) and Hyundai Rotem (95th place).

Aviation industry

In the 1950s and 1960s, Korean Air was engaged in the maintenance of foreign-made military aircraft in service with the local air force. The first major aerospace program was the licensed production of MD 500 helicopters, which began in 1976. Three years later, licensed production of Northrop F-5 fighters began.

The second powerful company in this field was Samsung Aerospace, which started with the production of aircraft engines. In 1986, the company became a partner with General Dynamics in the joint production of the F-16 (which lasted until 2000), and in 1990, Samsung Aerospace began licensed production of UH-60 helicopters for the South Korean army.

Missile program

It all started in 1972 with the maintenance of anti-aircraft missiles of the MIM-23 Hawk and Nike Hercules complexes. After gaining enough experience, the Republic of Korea on the basis of Nike Hercules missiles developed its first ballistic missile Hyunmoo-1.

In the 1990s, when “suddenly” many experienced rocket engineers appeared on the territory of the former USSR, Seoul began work on ballistic missiles of the Hyunmoo-2 family, as a result of which two variants appeared: Hyunmoo-2A – with a target range of up to 300 kilometers, as well as Hyunmoo-2B with a range of 500 to 800 kilometers. Visually, these missiles — well,  are very similar to Russian “Iskanders”, however, the Koreans still claim that  such similarity is dictated by functionality, and not a source of technology borrowing.

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In October 2024, during the celebration of the 76th anniversary of the creation of its own national armed forces, the Hyunmoo-5 ballistic missile was presented. Its characteristics are unknown, but it is claimed that the missile's flight speed can even reach Mach 10 and it is intended to destroy the underground infrastructure of the DPRK.

Ground Forces< /strong>

Most of its weapons are produced by South Korea for ground forces, as its army is primarily designed to fight a potential North Korean invasion. Since the 1950s, the Republic of Korea has used American-made weapons: M16 rifles, M48 tanks, and M113 armored personnel carriers. That is why the first weapons programs provided for the maintenance and modernization of these models with the help of the USA.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Republic of Korea began to actively develop weapons for its ground forces. In 1976, South Korea began to produce the Italian KM900 armored car under license, and later developed its own – K200.

Having been denied the purchase of the M60 tank, in 1980 the Republic of Korea began the development of the first domestic tank. Under the supervision of General Dynamics Land Systems Hyundai Precision (now Hyundai Rotem), the XK1 prototype was developed based on the M1 Abrams prototype, the XM1. In 1988, the K1 88-Tank officially entered service.

Daewoo Precision Industries (now S&T Motiv) also develops various models of firearms for the ground forces: K1, K2, K3 and K5.

South Korea produces the entire range of NATO-type ammunition – from hand grenades to 155-mm artillery shells.

Prospects for Ukraine

Despite the rather powerful growth of the defense industry, the Republic of Korea still remains critically dependent on foreign-made units and components. This severely restricts exports, as the country that developed the imported parts may prevent the export of the entire product. And there were quite a lot of such examples for South Korea. In particular, Germany banned the export of K9 Thunder air defense systems to Saudi Arabia and the UAE because they use a German engine. In October 2020, Great Britain banned South Korea from selling Argentina FA-50 aircraft the aircraft uses six British-made parts. We will remind, at that time, Argentina chose FA-50 to replace the outdated A-4 Skyhawk and temporarily replace the decommissioned Mirage III fighters.

Therefore, possible purchases of weapons by Ukraine in South Korea may face many difficulties. After all, the position of the Western allies, who verbally support our efforts in the fight against Russian aggression, may change radically when it comes to the purchase of weapons and their use at the front. At the same time, South Korea can become a Klondike of ammunition, especially against the background of the fact that the world is not so already many unengaged powers of this market segment.