Briefing: Can South Korea reach defence export premier league?

When the South Korean government formed the Defence Acquisition Programme Administration (DAPA) three years ago it tasked the agency with continuing the country's twin approach to defence procurement: acquisition of modern military technologies and equipment coupled with an objective of developing indigenous industrial capabilities.

This strategy, which has since been refined and enhanced by DAPA, has partly resulted in South Korea becoming the third biggest importer of materiel since 2004 with a 6 per cent share of all global arms imports behind China and India (11 and 7 per cent respectively), according to statistics from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

It has also seen the development of one of the most demanding offset policies in Asia.

According to figures published by the US government in December 2007, for instance, South Korea's offset demands reached an average of 58.5 per cent of the value of deals with US companies.

Speaking to Jane's in late May, the commissioner of DAPA, Byun Moo-keun, explained that this plan is firmly rooted in a long-term strategy to aid the development of domestic defence industries into becoming one of the country's key manufacturing sectors as well as one of the world's most successful defence exporters within five years.

"DAPA's primary mission," he said, "is to acquire excellent weapon systems at an affordable price in a timely manner... DAPA is also dedicated to promoting and developing domestic defence industries so that they can function as a new economic growth engine for the nation."