SEONGNAM, South Korea—Opening the Seoul ADEX airshow on Oct. 17, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol promised to expand the government’s support for surging defense exports and bolster the country’s nascent space industrial base.

Arms exports topped $17.3 billion for South Korea in 2022, smashing the previous yearly record of $7 billion, set a year prior. Now, South Korean government officials recognize a need to back up those export sales by expanding support services for overseas customers. 

“Now, defense industry cooperation goes beyond simply exporting weapons,” Yoon said. “The scope of cooperation is expanding to equipment and parts supply, education and training, and joint research and development.”

Yoon addressed a crowd on the opening day of the ADEX event in front of a backdrop of South Korea’s several weapon systems now offered for export, including the KF-21 Boramae, FA-50 Golden Eagle, K-SAM air and missile defense system, and the Chunmoo missile launch system. 

The growth spurt in 2022 was driven by orders from European governments re-arming after the start of the Ukraine-Russia war and new industrial partnerships with the United Arab Emirates. South Korea could struggle to maintain the same level of growth in 2023, but Yoon focused his remarks on achieving sustainable growth for the defense industry. 

“In the future, our government will establish an ecosystem that can sustainably grow,” Yoon said. “We will improve our global competitiveness.”

With the defense industry surging, Yoon also repeated his support for a new priority for the country’s national industrial policy: the commercial and military space sector. 

“With the goal of ‘leaping to become one of the world’s top-five space technology powers,’ we are actively supporting the aerospace industry that will lead the new space era,” Yoon said. 

Yoon noted that a proposal to create the Korea Aerospace Administration will come to fruition “in the future,” although lawmakers have blocked his plan to establish the agency modeled on NASA by the end of this year. 

To bolster Yoon’s remarks, Hanwha Aerospace displayed several previously announced space development projects, including military surveillance satellites, a constellation of commercial communications satellites and the Nuri space launcher.