Friday, February 15, 2008

[Korea.net News, Foreign Relations, December 21 2008] Russia to offset debts to S. Korea by transferring weapons technology

South Korea will receive advanced weapon technology from Russia as part of Moscow’s repayment of its debts to Seoul, defense officials here said Friday (Dec. 21).

Russia still owes $1.3 billion from the time the former Soviet Union borrowed bilions of dollars from Korea ahead of the normalization of relations in 1990 between the two former Cold War foes.

The former Soviet Union sided with its communist ally North Korea in the three-year Korean War launched by the North in 1950.

However, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced reforms and openness in the late 1980s, paving the way for Moscow’s normalization of ties with South Korea and other Western countries.

"We signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia on the method of repaying the debts," a spokesman at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said.

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