• From 2017 to 2021, North American and European countries will export 87% of all weapons.
• This summer, Poland and South Korea made deals worth $8.8 billion for Poland to buy tanks, self-propelled howitzers, and light attack planes from South Korea
• It’s the first time a NATO country other than Turkey has gone outside the alliance to get major weapons systems.

During a live-fire test at the Defense Expo Korea 2022 at a military base in Pocheon, a South Korean K-2 battle tank made by Hyundai Rotem Co.

Most of the international arms trade has gone from the West to the East. From 2017 to 2021, North American and European countries will export 87% of all weapons.

South Korea has shown this year that it is ready to change that.

This summer, Poland and South Korea made deals worth $8.8 billion for Poland to buy tanks, self-propelled howitzers, and light attack planes from South Korea. Last week, they reached a deal for rocket launchers worth $3.6 billion, which was the last step. It’s the first time a NATO country other than Turkey has gone outside the alliance to get major weapons systems.

South Korea has quietly become a favourite place for people to buy arms around the world. This is the result of decades of work to protect itself from North Korea by building a domestic arms industry that takes advantage of economies of scale from big export sales. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says that the country went from being the 31st largest supplier of weapons to the rest of the world in 2000 to the 8th largest from 2017 to 2021. (SIPRI). So far this year, it has signed export contracts worth $17 billion, which is more than the previous record of $7 billion, which was set in 2021, the first year that South Korea’s exports were bigger than its imports.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, decided last month that he wanted South Korea to be one of the top four countries in the world in terms of selling weapons. With Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, and the ongoing wars in the Middle East, South Korea will have every chance to take advantage of the situation.

SIPRI’s Siemon Wezeman told Forbes, “It’s a gold rush time for arms producers.” “The Koreans certainly have the right technology at the right time.”

As European countries spend more on defence to counter the Russian threat and replace the weapons they sent to Ukraine, U.S. officials worry that American arms manufacturers won’t be able to keep up with the demand because of problems in the supply chain and a lack of workers. South Korean weapons makers are ready to fill the gap with systems made for joint operations with U.S. forces, which makes them easy to use with NATO.

South Korea’s best selling points are its low prices and how quickly orders can be shipped by top arms companies like Hanwha Defense, Korea Aerospace Industries, and Hyundai Rotem.

Lockheed MartinLMT +0.9% couldn’t meet Poland’s request to increase its order of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which Ukraine has used to great effect against Russian forces. So, in October, Poland signed a contract for Chunmoo multiple launch rocket systems. The first one will arrive as early as 2023.

Jang, who co-wrote a paper last month about what it would take for South Korea to become one of the top four global arms merchants, says that it will be helped by the fact that a few countries in the middle of the table ahead of them, like Germany, the U.K., and Italy, are expected to focus on restocking their arsenals rather than exports in the near future, while Russia is likely to fall from the second spot in SIPRI’s ranking because of the effects of its war

Wezeman says that one thing that holds South Korea back is that it only sells weapons, while the U.S. often sells weapons as part of a bigger alliance that includes promises of military and political support. “If something goes wrong in the South China Sea, the Koreans won’t come to your aid or help you push your claims there. You can get it if you buy from the U.S.”

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