By Lee Tae-hoon
Seoul has sold millions of rounds of leftover M1 ammunition, most of which it believes to have received from Washington during the 1950-53 Korean War to private contractors in the United States, defense sources said Monday.
“Korea exported 45 million rounds of M1 ammunition for 3.96 billion won ($3.53 million) to the United States from 2002 through 2005 to raise money needed to buy new bullets,” a senior defense official said.
He added that South Korea also sold a retired C-500 transport plane for 100 million won in 2006 to PW Arms, an arms importer in the United States.
The official, however, noted it was unclear how much of the aging ammunition was from that given to the South Korean armed forces for free in the 1950s by the U.S. and that produced under license here in the 1970s by Poongsan.
“We have looked into our system, but it was difficult to determine how much of the wartime stocks accounted for the total sales and for what purpose the M1 ammo was imported,” another defense official said.
Some military officials have raised questions whether it would be appropriate for Seoul to sell back ammunition that it received for free.
Others, however, pointed out that the South Korean military has the right to do so as it has invested a huge sum of money for the maintenance of the old weapons.
The U.S. is believed to have provided about 90 percent of the military equipment and supplies sent to the South during the fratricidal war on the Korean Peninsula.
The South Korean military has been seeking to sell back some of the weaponry that it received from the United States, including M1 Garand and Carbine rifles, or lease them to local governments in the face of the Pentagon’s opposition.
According to a Navy official, Seoul tried to cash in on selling warships that it received practically free of charge from the United States, but failed to do so due to strong resistance from the Pentagon.
“The U.S. rejected the idea of Seoul making money out of the weaponry that it provided to bolster its ally’s capabilities to deter North Korea’s military threats,” the official said.
“But as the cost of maintaining the old U.S. warships exceeded the benefits, the South Korean Navy came up with the idea of leasing or giving them away to local governments.”
Gangneung City in Gangwon Province has been displaying the DD-916 Jeonbuk, a destroyer launched by the United States in 1945 as the USS Everett F. Larson (DD-830), at a fee-paying public park.
The DD-916 Jeonbuk was transferred to the South Korean Navy in 1972 from the U.S. Navy at virtually no cost.
Many other local governments have been earning revenue by exhibiting retired U.S. battleships, such as Hwasan tank landing ships and Jeonju destroyers that were transferred to the South Korean Navy.
Washington recently gave the green light to the sale of some 86,000 M1 Garand rifles that were used by allied forces during the Korean War and kept in the South Korean Army’s inventory for the past six decades.