Korea Still Seeking Global Hawk UAVs

The Ministry of Defense is said to be planning on requesting the sales of the high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) “Global Hawk” during the Security Policy Initiative (SPI) meetings which will be held in Washington DC on September 27 and 28.

A source from the Ministry said on September 10, “We are planning on requesting at the SPI meeting that the Global Hawk, which the U.S. has been refusing to sell since last year, be sold to Korea.”

This person also said, “Rather than bringing this matter up as an agenda, we will probably emphasize our need for UAVs and request cooperation in their sales during the meeting.”

The government has been requesting the sales of the Global Hawk since last year, but the U.S. took the stand that sales were not possible at the Security Cooperation Committee (SCC) meetings last June.

The Ministry of Defense strongly hopes to purchase the Global Hawk for the purpose of strengthening its patrol capacity against North Korea to prepare for Korea’s retrieval of wartime operational control, but the U.S. is not positive due to worries about disclosure of technology.

According to the Ministry’s “2006–2010 Mid-term Defense Plan,” the Ministry is planning on purchasing four high-altitude UAVs from about 2008 and beginning the development of mid-altitude UAVs this year, aiming for completion in approximately 2016.

According to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, the U.S. requires the consent of Congress and the government in order to sell the Global Hawk to another country, and Australia, Japan, and Singapore have purchased this vehicle so far from the U.S.

The Global Hawk is a strategic arm that is of a similar level as intelligence satellites, flying for 38–42 hours at the altitude of 20 kilometers and having the ability to identify objects with sizes of 30 centimeters using radars and infrared detection equipment. Its operation radius is 3,000 kilometers and is priced at $45 million each.