U.S. to sell $325 million of advanced arms to Korea

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The United States is in the process of selling hundreds of cutting-edge weapons to South Korea, a deal expected to be worth $325 million, according to a defense agency here.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said it has notified Congress of possible sales to South Korea of 367 cluster bombs and associated parts, equipment, logistical support and training.

The bombs, formally the sensor-fuzed CBU-105D/B Wind Corrected Munition Dispenser (WCMD), are typically dropped from aircraft and release bomblets over a wider area against such targets as tanks, bunkers and parked aircraft.

Each bomb’s 40 Skeet warheads scans the surface for targets and if none is found they self-destruct, providing a “clean”

battlefield and thus skirting the 2008 Oslo convention that bans cluster munitions that can harm civilians later, according to the contractor, Textron Defense Systems of Massachusetts.

The agency said South Korea has requested the sales, which would include 28 Captive Air Training Missiles and seven Dummy Air Training Missiles.

The estimated cost is $325 million.

South Korea intends to use the weapons to “modernize its armed forces and enhance its capability to defeat a wide range of enemy defenses including fortifications, armored vehicles, and maritime threats,” it said in a press release.

“This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by meeting the legitimate security and defense needs of an ally and partner nation,” it added.