SEOUL: South Korea will buy European bunker-busting missiles as the United States refused to sell the same kind of weapons to the country, the state procurement agency said Wednesday.
At a meeting presided over by Defence Minister Kim Kwan-Jin, the Defence Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) approved a plan to purchase air-to-ground missiles with a 500-kilometre (312.5 mile) range from the German-Swedish joint venture Taurus System.
The number of missiles and proposed budget have not been confirmed yet, it said. But Yonhap news agency said South Korea planned to buy about 170 Taurus bunker busters worth more than $300 million in total.
Launched from a relatively safe distance from the enemy, the GPS-guided cruise missiles can hit strategic targets with precision, DAPA said in a press statement.
"The long-range air-to-ground missiles will add to our strategic assets, bolster deterrence against war and drastically enhance survivability of the aircraft and pilots as well", DAPA said.
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