Korea was the world`s largest arms importer in 2014, CRS says

South Korea was the world`s largest importer of arms in the world last year. Massive purchases of American weapons last year raised the nation`s ranking in arms import from the seventh in 2013 to the top in 2014.

According to an annual report on arms sales published by the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS) on Saturday, South Korea purchased arms worth 7.8 billion dollars (approx. 9.1 trillion won) last year and 90 percent of the purchases (approx. 7 billion dollars) were from the U.S. Between 2010 and 2013, South Korea imported 3 billion dollars to 3.5 billion dollars worth of arms every year.

This means that South Korea spent 20.3 percent of the entire national defense budget (approx. 40 trillion won) last year on the Korea Fighter Program (KFP) and other items including high altitude reconnaissance planes and cargo helicopters CH-47. The KFP was at the center of controversy because South Korea failed to have the U.S. transfer the core technology of F-35 to South Korea, which was a pre-condition of the KFP. This left South Korea with no choice but to replace it with its own technology.

"Due to the Korean Fighter Experimental (KFX) program, Korea`s contract amount with the U.S. in arms imports drastically increased last year," said Shin In-gyun, president of Seoul-based defense-related civic group Korea Defense Network. "The import amount increased because the statistics were made based on the contract amount of the first year of the KFP." The New York Times said that Korea`s tension with North Korea influenced its arms import.

The second largest arms importer was Iraq, which purchased arms worth 7.3 billion dollars in order to cover the withdrawal of the U.S. military. The third largest arms importer was Brazil as it purchased Swedish aircraft and other items for 6.5 billion dollars.

The largest arms exporter was the U.S., which earned 36.2 billion dollars; a 36 percent increase from the previous year. The major buyers were South Korea, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. The U.S. was followed by Russia (10.2 billion dollars), Sweden (5.5 billion dollars), France (4.4 billion dollars), and China (2.2 billion dollars).

The total sum of arms trade last year was 71.8 billion dollars, which is a 2.7 percent increase from 2013. The CRS report speculated that the growth rate of the arms market will slow down due to the impact of the world`s sluggish economy.

sunshade@donga.com