Battles & Wars › Modern conflicts › Military-industrial complex (Eisenhower's 1961 warning)
Hanwha and South Korea's arms export boom
founded 1952; K9 howitzer in service 1999; Polish deals 2022· Arms maker, factory or program· Arms makers & war industry
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
South Korean conglomerate that began as an explosives maker in 1952 and now leads the country's surge in weapons exports.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Kim Chong-hee founded Korea Explosives (한국화약) in October 1952, during the Korean War; it made explosives for mines, roads and dams and was later renamed Hanwha (한화). Its defense arm grew with Park Chung-hee's 1970s push for home-built arms. In 2015 it bought Samsung Techwin, maker of the K9 Thunder howitzer, and in 2023 the shipbuilder Daewoo, now Hanwha Ocean. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Poland agreed to buy 672 K9s and 288 Chunmoo rocket launchers. In 2024 Hanwha bought Philly Shipyard in Pennsylvania.
Why it matters
It shows how an arms industry built to deter North Korea now supplies NATO allies, delivering fast from production lines kept running for decades.
How we know
Hanwha's corporate history, Polish and South Korean government contract announcements, SIPRI's arms-transfer database and company financial filings. Export values are often contract ceilings; actual deliveries are tracked separately.
Still debated
Whether the boom lasts depends on financing for Poland's later contracts, local-production deals abroad, and competition from European makers rearming at home.
Connections (3)
▸Hanwha and South Korea's arms export boom began making explosives (1952) during the Korean WarWell documented
The connection
Kim Chong-hee, who had worked at a Japanese-owned explosives company in colonial Korea, founded Korea Explosives in October 1952, while the war still raged. It supplied industrial explosives as the shattered country rebuilt, and later munitions as Seoul built its own defense industry.
When and how
Founded in 1952; it took over the Incheon explosives factory and later produced South Korea's first homemade dynamite.
How we know
Hanwha's corporate history and Korean business histories document the founding and early products.
Debates and open questions
How much the young firm's growth owed to close ties with the government, typical of South Korea's chaebol conglomerates, is debated.
▸Hanwha and South Korea's arms export boom builds the K9, a top-selling modern Field artillery and howitzersWell documented
The connection
The K9 Thunder is a tracked 155 mm self-propelled howitzer: a long-range gun on a tank-like chassis that can fire, move and fire again within minutes to dodge counterfire. Developed from 1989 with South Korea's defense research agency, it entered service in 1999. About ten countries have ordered it, including Turkey, India, Poland, Finland and Australia.
When and how
Designed by Samsung's defense unit, which Hanwha bought in 2015; first fired in combat in 2010, when North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island.
How we know
Buyer governments' contract announcements and SIPRI arms-transfer data; analysts rank it among the best-selling howitzers of recent decades.
Debates and open questions
How well it holds up against drones and modern counter-battery fire, as seen in Ukraine, is still being tested.
▸Hanwha and South Korea's arms export boom won record Polish orders during the Russia–Ukraine warWell documented
The connection
After the 2022 invasion, Poland gave much of its old artillery to Ukraine and needed replacements fast. In July 2022 it agreed with Hanwha on 672 K9 howitzers, and later that year on 288 Chunmoo rocket launchers; the first 24 K9s arrived that December. South Korea's arms export deals hit a record of about $17 billion in 2022.
When and how
Warsaw and Seoul, 2022–24; the first firm contract was signed in August 2022, alongside deals for Hyundai Rotem tanks and KAI jets.
How we know
Polish Armament Agency contracts and delivery ceremonies, and South Korean government export figures.
Debates and open questions
Whether all framework orders become firm contracts depends on Polish financing and local production; South Korea itself does not send weapons directly to Ukraine.