SEONGNAM, South Korea -- South Korea kicked off a weeklong international aerospace and defense exhibition at a military airport near Seoul on Tuesday, aiming to use the biennial gathering as a launchpad to increase exports of the country's fighter jets, rocket launchers, drones and other weapons.
This year's event, which gathers some 550 companies from 34 countries and government delegations from 57 countries, is being held as global tensions are spiking due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, which comes on top of intense fighting between Russia and Ukraine. There are also long-simmering tensions in East Asia surrounding the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan.
