S. Korea purchases US$1 billion worth of U.S. weapons in 2007

Posted on : 2007-06-17 20:41 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST

South Korea will purchase nearly US$1 billion worth of weapons from the United States in the fiscal year 2007 which ends in September, the fifth-largest amount in the world, but at a slightly higher price than others due to U.S. restrictions.

According to the budget bill for 2008, now under review by Congress, South Korea will likely have purchased a total of $955 million worth of weapons through the foreign military sales (FMS) program in the fiscal year, which ends in September 2007, following Turkey with a little over $3.4 billion, Afghanistan ($3.1 billion), Saudi Arabia ($1.59 billion) and Iraq with about $1 billion.

The FMS program manages government-to-government sales of weapons and other military articles and training.

Seoul purchased about $410 million worth of weapons through the FMS program in 2006. It was expected to buy some $350 million worth of weapons in fiscal year 2008, according to the U.S. bill.

Despite such large amounts of purchases, however, Seoul continues to buy U.S. weapons at a slightly higher price than most of other U.S. allies due to its lack of preferential status in the FMS system, the bill showed.

Washington currently categorizes its main weapons purchases in three classes: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), NATO plus 3 and major non-NATO allies.

Seoul belongs to the lowest category of major non-NATO allies along with 13 others, including Egypt, Thailand and Pakistan, who have to pay an extra 1.7 percent of their total purchase amounts to cover administrative costs.

Members of NATO and those belonging to the NATO plus 3 group, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the recently added Israel, are asked to pay between 0.2 percent to 1 percent.
WASHINGTON, June 16 (Yonhap News)