S. Korea, U.S. to meet this week over defense technology security

South Korea and the U.S. are set to hold talks on defense technology security this week, officials said Thursday.

The third annual Defense Technology Security Consultative Meeting (DTSCM) will be held on Hawaii from Thursday to Saturday, according to officials at the South‘s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

Kwon Oh-bong, the vice commissioner of the DAPA, and James Hursch, the director of the Defense Technology Security Administration (DTSA) under the Defense Department, will represent each side.

“The two countries agreed that in addition to cooperation in defense industries, we need a separate dialogue channel on technology exchange and export control,” a DAPA official said.

Representatives at the meeting may also discuss the controversy of South Korea’s alleged unauthorized meddling of core U.S.

technology on a South Korean fighter jet.

Last year, South Korean weapons developers came under suspicions that they had disassembled the Tiger Eye sensors suite in the Air Force‘s F-15K fighter, whose navigation systems and targeting pod devices contain U.S. military technology. The contract between the two countries states that the South must not disassemble Tiger Eye.

Despite the DAPA’s claim that an investigation found no evidence of meddling, rumors of unauthorized use with other weapons using U.S. technology haven‘t abated.

The DAPA official insisted that the issue surrounding the F-15K is “a closed one” after the U.S. wrapped up its investigation last fall. (Yonhap News)