South Korea to purchase 20 additional F-35 fighter jets from US despite North's warnings

South Korea has announced a plan to purchase 20 additional F-35 fighter jets from the United States, in a move that is likely to infuriate North Korea which has already warned Seoul against the deployment of the jets in the region.

The South’s arms procurement agency announced on Friday that it will begin the second phase of its plan to acquire stealthy fighter jets "in 2021 for the five years to come."

Some $3.3 billion will go toward buying the additional Lockheed Martin-made aircraft, said the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

Seoul has already ordered 40 F-35 under a 2014 deal worth about $6.4 billion.

The first delivery of the fighters started earlier this year. It has so far received 8 jets, while a total of 26 more planes will be delivered by the end of next year, according to the South Korean air force.

Earlier this month, the military displayed some of its newly acquired jets for the first time.

The move came despite North Korea’s call in July on South Korean authorities “to come to their senses before it is too late” and stop purchasing the aircraft.

Pyongyang warned then that it would begin developing “special armaments” capable of destroying the fifth generation aircraft if South Korea did not cease its deployment of the jets in the region.

It described the purchase and testing of the aircraft as an “extremely dangerous action which will trigger our reaction.”

PressTV-S Korea’s F-35 jet acquisition 'extremely dangerous action'

North Korea criticizes the South’s acquisition of American F-35 stealth fighter jets as an “extremely dangerous action” that could jeopardize inter-Korean relations.

North Korea, currently under multiple rounds of harsh sanctions by the UN and the United States over its nuclear and missile programs, put a unilateral halt to its missile and nuclear tests last year when it agreed to denuclearization talks with the United States.

South Korea, however, has launched a program to modernize its military, despite President Moon Jae-in’s push for reaching peace with the North.

The two countries are technically at war since the Korean War ended with a truce and not a peace treaty, almost seven decades ago.

They engaged in unprecedented talks in early 2018. Late last year, the two Korean leaders agreed in a meeting in Pyongyang to take a step closer to peace by turning the Korean Peninsula into a “land of peace without nuclear weapons and nuclear threats.”

Inter-Korean talks have, however, stalled since a second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un broke up without an agreement in Vietnam in February.

Last week, after working-level talks between the two countries broke down in Sweden, North Korea announced that it has “no desire” to continue negotiations with the United States until Washington takes “practical” steps to end hostilities.

Moon continues to call for inter-Korean talks as well as talks between the US and Pyongyang.

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