On Thursday, May 7, 2026, South Korean company Hanwha Aerospace, part of Hanwha Group, announced that it had hosted a delegation of senior U.S. defense officials led by retired Admiral Harry Harris at its headquarters for talks on defense cooperation between the Republic of Korea and the United States.
Photo: Hanwha Aerospace
The event, held at Hanwha’s headquarters in Jangyo-dong, Seoul, was attended by Hanwha Aerospace President Gen. (Ret.) Suh Wook, who served as Minister of National Defense of the Republic of Korea from 2020 to 2022, as well as executives from Hanwha Systems and Hanwha Ocean. The U.S. delegation included retired four-star Admiral Harry Binkley Harris Jr., the 23rd U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2018 to 2021, as well as 21 generals and officers from the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Marine Corps, and senior officials from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
Executives from the three defense subsidiaries of Hanwha Group presented the group’s global defense operations, vision, and capabilities in key weapons systems, and discussed how they could contribute to the alliance between the Republic of Korea and the United States in the land, air, and maritime domains.
The U.S. delegation expressed strong interest in Hanwha’s military systems capabilities. Both sides agreed that defense industrial capacity is playing an increasingly important role in the alliance between the Republic of Korea and the United States, and held in-depth discussions on future areas of cooperation.
A Hanwha Aerospace representative said, “The South Korea-US alliance is the foundation of Hanwha’s defense business, and we aim to create a model in which the defense industries of both countries grow together through investment, production, and technological cooperation in the US.” The representative added, “Through this meeting, we will strengthen trust between senior officials from both sides and actively identify concrete areas for cooperation going forward.”
Press release