The State Department has approved selling to South Korea $258 million worth of tools and equipment to convert unguided bombs into precision munitions and has notified Congress of the sale.
The Boeing Co. will supply South Korea with more than 7,000 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) Guidance Kits along with other components, spare parts and logistics support, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
The JDAM guidance kit transforms standard gravity bombs into “smart” munitions by adding a tail section that contains a global positioning system control unit and an inertial navigation system.
When released from an aircraft, the JDAM navigates to designated coordinates that can be loaded into the system before takeoff, according to the Air Force, which developed the JDAM with the Navy.
If the GPS system is enabled, the JDAM can hit a target within five meters or less, officials said.
The sale will allow South Korea, a major non-NATO ally, to meet threats on the Korean Peninsula and help with the eventual transfer of wartime operational control to South Korean military commanders. The deal will cause no problems with U.S. defense readiness, the State Department said.
This is the second major arms sale to South Korea this year. In March, the State Department approved a $36 million deal to supply the country with 288 air-to-surface Hellfire missiles for their fleet of AH-64 Apache helicopters.
In December, South Korean officials said they wanted to buy two Phalanx Close-In Weapons System (CIWS) — which are used against incoming targets like helicopters, missiles and small boats — and 4,000 rounds of ammunition for almost $40 million.
President Biden’s special envoy for North Korea was in Seoul while the precision munitions deal was being finalized. Ambassador Sung Kim’s four-day visit was intended to urge Pyongyang to restart stalled nuclear diplomacy talks with the U.S.
“I’m looking forward to very close consultations with our Korean government colleagues,” the ambassador told reporters at Incheon International Airport, according to The Associated Press.
Ambassador Kim also sought to ease tensions with North Korea by downplaying a joint U.S./South Korean military exercise that he said was mostly computer-simulated and won’t involve live-fire training.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, released a statement describing the table-top drill as the “most vivid expression of the U.S. hostile policy” toward her country.
A political power in her own right, Ms. Kim said the North will work faster to strengthen its capabilities to carry out preemptive military strikes.
Ambassador Kim responded by saying the U.S. doesn’t have any hostile intent toward North Korea.
The U.S. and South Korea have curtailed or canceled some of their joint drills, both to allow diplomacy to work and more recently over concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the AP.
About 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, with most based at Camp Humphreys, located 40 miles south of Seoul. Both countries signed a mutual defense treaty following the 1950-1953 Korean War.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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