South Korea To Buy Two Early Warning Radars To Detect North's Missiles

South Korea has decided to acquire two advanced early warning radars to detect the North's  ballistic missiles within this year.

A regular meeting on arms procurement projects presided by Defense Minister Han Min-koo approved the plan, Defense Acquisition Program Agency (DAPA) was quoted as saying in a statement by Yonhap Tuesday.

It plans to import the radars in the project starting within this year. South Korea currently has two Israel-made Green Pine land-based radars in operation. The new radars will have maximum range of more than 800 kilometers to detect ballistic missiles fired by North Korea, Yonhap reported.

The defense authorities revised a mid-term defense plan to buy two more radars after initially budgeting for one radar. South Korea is in the process of establishing the so-called Korea Air and Missile Defense system.

South Korea has developed new mobile artillery locating radar system to counter North’s threats. The new counter-artillery detection radar-II worth approximately 54 billion won (US$47.7 million) will be operational starting in 2018, Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a statement Monday.

The DAPA also said it will push for the production of special ships to support an operation by commandos to remove the enemy's leadership, while continuing the development of indigenous ship self-defense guided missiles.