Last week, President Yoon Suk-yeol pledged to build South Korea’s weapons industry into the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter, calling defense a “new future growth engine” for the national economy and the pivot point for the high-tech industry. 

“With the intensifying competition for technological supremacy, we need to secure technological competitiveness to develop game-changing weapon systems for future wars,” he said during a meeting at the Korea Aerospace Industries.