Seoul to produce hundreds of new artillery by 2012

SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government on Wednesday signed a 1.5
trillion won (US$1 billion) deal with a local manufacturer to produce hundreds of
K-9 self-propelled howitzers, the defense procurement office said.

Samsung Techwin, an arms affiliate of the country's largest conglomerate Samsung,
will also supply hundreds of K-10 armored mobile munition vehicles by 2012 under
the contract, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).
The DAPA refused to release the exact number of the vehicles to be produced,
saying the information is classified.
"Deployment of the new K-9 howitzer and K-10 munition vehicles will significantly
boost our artillery firepower while it will also have a positive effect on our
ongoing negotiations with a number of nations to export the armored vehicles,"
the DAPA said in a press release.
Indigenously developed by the state-run Agency for Defense Development in 1998,
the K-9 howitzer has a maximum range of 60 kilometers and can fire up to eight
rounds of fire per minute.
South Korea technically remains at war with North Korea, which has over 70
percent of its troops deployed forward along the military demarcation line that
divides the two Koreas.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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