The recent rise of South Korea's defense industry has been remarkable. From tanks and self-propelled artillery to missiles, aircraft and warships, Korean weapons systems are earning high marks in global markets. Yet the industry cannot afford to rest on its current success. For K-defense to grow into a sustainable national core industry, the focus must shift from how many finished products can be exported to how strong a defense ecosystem can be built.
The first priority is rebuilding the supply chain needed to advance weapons systems. Cutting-edge weapons require rare earth elements, rare metals, high-purity materials and semiconductors. For South Korea, a country poor in natural resources, shifts in the international order or resource controls imposed by specific countries can quickly translate into production risks for the defense sector.
Defense exports and resource security must therefore be bound together as a single strategy. When selling weapons to countries that hold strategic resources — rare earths, copper, tungsten, lithium — South Korea should use strategic countertrade arrangements to secure long-term resource supply rights and joint development opportunities. Existing offset agreements should also evolve beyond technology transfers and local production into "resource offsets" that lock in access to the partner country's strategic materials.
The hardware base must be broadened as well. A truly powerful defense nation is not simply one that excels at assembling finished products. Research and development investment in advanced components — sensors, radar, semiconductors, electro-optics, communications, engines and specialty materials — must be expanded, and the barriers keeping small and medium-sized enterprises, venture firms, universities and research institutes out of the defense sector must be decisively lowered.
Software matters even more. The outcome of future warfare will be decided by AI, data, software and command-and-control systems. Relying on foreign technology for these capabilities cannot be called true defense self-reliance. South Korea must build a "sovereign defense" AI and software system it controls entirely on its own, connecting defense AI, battlefield data, command-and-control networks (C4I), cloud infrastructure and cybersecurity into a single integrated ecosystem with its weapons systems.
The export model must change as well. Rather than selling weapons alone, South Korea should export a full package: weapons systems plus AI and command-and-control, education and training, logistics support, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), and continuous performance upgrades. I call this the "K-defense chain" — a strategy that links hardware and software, defense exports and resource acquisition, local production and MRO, and performance upgrades with follow-on weapons procurement. Ultimately, it is a strategy that turns a single export contract into a 30-year market.
Achieving this requires pan-government prioritization and focus. A national strategy to expand the K-defense base — one that brings together not only the Ministry of National Defense and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration but also the industry, science and technology, and diplomacy sectors alongside companies, universities and research institutes — must be drawn up without delay.
The Ministry of National Defense in particular must make a clear-eyed judgment about the priorities of the era. The world is locked in fierce competition over AI, unmanned systems, space, cyber capabilities and critical minerals. At such a moment, administrative energy and public attention should not be squandered on unproductive debates such as the integration of military academies. The ministry must direct its full capacity toward deciding what will sustain South Korea's military strength and defense industry over the next 20 to 30 years.
If the first act of K-defense was the miracle of building excellent weapons, the second act must be the challenge of connecting and leading the global defense ecosystem. South Korea must leap beyond being a country that sells finished products to one that exports supply chains, technology, software and MRO alongside them. Now is the time to build the K-defense chain.
Chae Woo-seok is chairman of the Korea Defense Industry Association.
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