SEOUL, Dec. 29 (Chinese media) -- South Korea sold more than 1 billion U.S. dollars worth of weapons and defense articles to foreign countries in 2008, the country's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said Monday.
It is the first time that South Korea exported more than 1 billion U.S. dollars worth of weapons abroad since it began overseas sales in 1975, the DAPA said.
"Through its continued efforts, the administration was able to increase the amount of the country's defense exports to some 844 million U.S. dollars in 2007, up from an annual average of 250 million U.S. dollars in previous years, and finally reaching the 1billion-U.S. dollar mark this year for the first time in history," the DAPA said in a press release.
It is especially meaningful as it comes amid a worldwide economic downturn, a DAPA official said.
"We became the world's 17th largest defense exporter last year when we exported nearly 850 million worth of defense goods. We won't know how we did this year until later but I believe we have moved up at least a couple of notches," Col. Lee Hyun-soo, director of DAPA's export support division, was quoted as saying.
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