The defense ministers of Poland and South Korea announced on Thursday that the latter will get the know-how required to construct K2 tanks from South Korea, a significant step toward establishing manufacturing on Ukrainian soil.
NATO member Poland has agreed to pay $12.7 billion for South Korean armaments, including tanks, artillery, and fighter jets, since Russia’s incursion.
Warsaw placed an initial order with Hyundai Rotem in 2022 for about 200 K2 “Black Panther” assault tanks.
However, it plans to purchase around 800 units of a unique variation known as K2PL, which will be made in Poland.
With Seoul’s handover of manufacturing technology, Poland’s goal of producing its own tanks starting in 2026 is one step closer to reality.
“Yes, we will manufacture (tanks) in Poland,” Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told journalists in Pruszkow, near Warsaw.
In addition, Kosiniak-Kamysz stated that “the preparation of Polish arms factories for this project will take place immediately” when speaking with his South Korean colleague Shin Won-sik.
Poland is still negotiating with South Korea the conditions of the equipment’s financing, delivery, servicing, and occasionally even production, despite the fact that the first deliveries have already started, according to Kosiniak-Kamysz.
“But I think that after today’s discussion, a positive conclusion with conditions that the Polish side will be able to accept is very close.”
In addition to the 1,000 K2 tanks, Poland also bought 50 FA-50 fighter planes, 672 K9A1 self-propelled howitzers, and 288 K239 Chunmoo multiple rocket launcher systems from South Korea.
According to the specialized website Defense News, Warsaw became the biggest European purchaser of South Korean weapons as a result of these acquisitions.
Poland, a country bordering both Russia and Ukraine, claimed that in order to deter aggression, it needed to increase its armament acquisitions.
