Bulk of S. Korea’s arms imports brokered by private dealers

More than 66 percent of South Korea’s arms imports over the past six years were brokered by private dealers, data showed Sunday.

According to the data by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, the government bought 16.7 trillion won ($15.7 billion) worth of foreign arms and defense equipment in the 2007-12 period.

Of the total arms import, some 11.41 trillion won, or 66.1 percent, were brokered by private dealers while 33.8 percent of them were acquired through the foreign military sales system, a government-to-government transaction in which the exporting country provides a quality guarantee.

FMS tend to drive up the price of imported arms in comparison with those imported through contracts brokered by private arms dealers. But concerns about intense lobbies by arms dealers have led the South Korean government to seek an increase in FMS-led imports.

The defense acquisition agency data, meanwhile, also showed that 49 percent of the arms imports through private dealers represent shipment from the United States, followed by Germany which accounts for 34 percent.

Such arms dealer-government deals include the import of 2 trillion won worth of the F-15K strike fighters from the U.S. in 2008 as well as the import of German air independent propulsion submarines in 2008 that cost 3.1 trillion won, the data showed.

Israel sold the third largest amount of arms to South Korea through private arms dealers over the past six years with sales of 524.7 billion won, followed by Britain with 397.6 billion won and Turkey at 147 billion won.

As of 2012, the balance at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank account, to which Seoul transferred payments for FMS-led arms imports, reached $986.8 million, up from $525.4 million in 2007, the data also showed, suggesting a steady increase in inbound shipments of U.S. arms through FMS. (Yonhap News)