At a sprawling South Korean arms factory, a high-tech production line of robots and superskilled workers were rapidly churning out weapons Friday that could, eventually, play a role in Ukraine.
Since the Russian invasion last year, the Hanwha Aerospace factory in the southern city of Changwon has expanded production capacity three times, workers said, as South Korea ramps up arms exports while traditional behemoths like the United States struggle with production shortages.
Long-standing domestic policy bars Seoul from selling weapons into active conflicts, but even so it signed deals worth $17.3 billion last year, including a $12.7 billion agreement with NATO member and key Kyiv ally Poland, for K9 Howitzers, K2 tanks, and more.