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Korea, Canada ink revised arms industry cooperation pact

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Eom Dong-hwan, Korean minister of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), speaks as Poland receives the first delivery of Korean K2 Black Panther tanks and K9 self-propelled howitzers at the port in Gdynia, Poland, Dec. 6. Reuters-Yonhap

Korea and Canada signed a revision Friday to their decades-old memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the arms industry and logistics cooperation to expand the scope of their defense collaboration, Seoul's state arms procurement agency said.

Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) Minister Eom Dong-hwan and his Canadian counterpart, Troy Crosby, inked the revised MOU that paves the way for cooperation in new areas, including the joint research and development of weapons systems and their testing.

The original MOU was first signed in 1996, laying the foundation for defense industry cooperation between the two nations.

The two countries recognized the need for the amendment when DAPA elicited cooperation from the Canadian authorities to use a site in Yellow Knife to carry out a low-temperature performance test of a light armed helicopter in 2020.

Eom pointed out that the revision marks the first case of the implementation of a bilateral summit agreement in September to upgrade the two countries' relationship to a "comprehensive strategic partnership." (Yonhap)