The Philippines and Korea have a very special friendship that dates back to 1951.
Upon the invitation of the Minister of Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration, Minister Wang Jung Hong, and the Secretary of Philippines Department of National Defense, Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana, on August 28, 2019, United Defense Manufacturing Corp. (UDMC) participated in the PHILIPPINES-KOREA DEFENSE INDUSTRY COOPERATION SEMINAR held at the Makati Shangri-la.
The following Korean defense industry heavyweights were in attendance and made their individual business and product presentations, namely: S&T MOTIV, DAEWOO SHIPBUILDING, HANWHA DEFENSE, HYUNDAI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, KOREA AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES, KIA MOTORS and LIG NEX1, among many others.
The objective of the conference was to foster a more vibrant defense industry cooperation between Korean and Philippines defense companies (B2B) including government to government (G2G) cooperation and the cross-sectional government to business (G2B) cooperation which will involve the sale and procurement of defense articles from the Republic of Korea including the transfer of defense technologies to the Philippines.
It will be recalled that the Philippines sent a contingent of soldiers to defend South Korea against the combined forces of North Korea and China in 1951. In fact, two of our Filipino soldiers received the TAEGEUK MEDAL (Korean Medal of Valor), the highest decoration given to a soldier for bravery in combat during the Korean War. These two Filipino soldiers are Maj. Maximo Young and Capt. Conrado Yap. The Philippines was also the very first country which established diplomatic relations with the Republic of Korea.
Because of this long history of alliance between the two nations, their defense industry collaboration is as strong as ever and has in fact reached a heightened level during the present administrations of Philippines President Rodrigo R. Duterte and Korea President Moon Jae-in.
Read more on the link below how our Filipino soldiers gallantly fought against the combined North Korean and Chinese forces during the Korean War in helping defend democracy and the South Koreans in 1951. And now, because of the rapid technological advances in defense achieved thus far by the Koreans, they are poised to reciprocate by way of making the Philippines their priority market for defense articles supply and technology transfer.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1074109
