By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

South Korea was the world's third-largest arms importer in the five years from 2005 and was also the largest customer for U.S. weapons systems, a research group said Tuesday.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported that the United States remained the biggest supplier of conventional weapons.

China was the biggest arms buyer during the period, accounting for 9 percent of total imports, followed by India with 7 percent, according to the report titled ``Trends in International Arms Transfers 2009.''

South Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were in a tie for third place, each accounting for 6 percent.

Korea was also the largest customer for American weapons, with 14 percent of U.S. arms exports bound here during the period.

Other big buyers of U.S.-made weapons were Israel and the UAE, the study shows.

South Korea faces a nuclear-armed North Korea across the world's most heavily fortified border. The two sides are still technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Unveiled in 2005, Seoul's Defense Reform 2020 plan calls for equipping its armed forces with high-tech weapons systems to fill a projected manpower gap. Under the military modernization plan, South Korean troop strength will be cut from 690,000 to 510,000 by 2020.

The report says the United States accounted for 30 percent of global arms exports, followed by Russia with 23 percent, Germany with 11 percent and France with 8 percent.

U.S.-produced weapons accounted for 66 percent of arms imported by South Korea, followed by Germany (20 percent) and France (10 percent).

The total volume in conventional weapons trade rose 22 percent in 2005-2009 compared to the previous five-year period, with China and India being the biggest importers of these weapons, the report showed.

Combat aircraft accounted for 27 percent of the total volume of trade in conventional arms during the period, with the United States selling 72 F-16 jets to the UAE and 40 F-15 jets to South Korea, it said.

Referring to fighter jets, the group noted that orders and deliveries of these ``potentially destabilizing'' weapon systems have led to arms race concerns in the Middle East, North Africa, South America, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

SIPRI, established in 1966, is an independent international institute dedicated to research on conflict, armament, arms control and disarmament.

The institute's data on global arms transfer is a fully searchable on-line database containing information on all international transfers in seven categories of major conventional weapons from 1950 to the most recent full calendar year.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr