South Korea's Hanwha Ocean was defeated by Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) in Canada's next-generation submarine acquisition project, valued at up to 60 trillion won (approximately 6.5 trillion yen). Canada chose Germany, a fellow member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). South Korean newspapers expressed the view, 'Limits of South Korea's defense industry without security cooperation.'

According to the JoongAng Ilbo, President Lee Jae-myung said on social media, 'This experience will serve as a foundation to further enhance the excellent performance and technological capabilities that proudly competed with the world's leading submarine-building nations.'

In response, the newspaper's editorial stated, 'We cannot be satisfied with the fact that we competed on par with Germany, a leading nation in submarine construction. It is necessary to look at the fundamental factors.'

Regarding the reason Canada's Prime Minister Carney chose Germany, he emphasized Canada's 'strategic security' and explained, 'Full interoperability with NATO is ensured, making joint missions possible.'

The editorial pointed out, 'After the war in Ukraine, the conventional export strategy that emphasized cost performance, adherence to delivery times, and industrial cooperation packages is no longer effective for NATO member states, including European countries, which have emerged as the world's largest defense industry market.' It also stated, 'Now, with the full-scale deepening of the bloc confrontation between NATO and China-Russia, the era has arrived where the defense industry chosen is not "a country with excellent weapons," but "a country with excellent weapons that is also an ally."

And, 'Among the Indo-Pacific Partner 4 (IP4) countries, with which NATO is strengthening cooperation to counter China, Australia and New Zealand assigning or intending to assign warship construction to Japan instead of South Korea is not unrelated to this trend,' the editorial concluded.

Furthermore, 'In this situation, South Korea, while being aware of Russia as an existential threat to NATO, only provides non-lethal weapons and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, even though Russia is strengthening military cooperation with North Korea and openly opposing sanctions against North Korea. The government should ask itself how NATO views South Korea's defense industry, which takes no countermeasures.'

The JoongAng Ilbo worried, 'In particular, publicly conducting special envoy diplomacy that should have been carried out discreetly, and even disclosing a specific "gift list," also caused dissatisfaction among Eastern European countries, which were traditionally the largest importers of K-defense industry products, potentially becoming an obstacle to future orders.' It appealed, 'President Lee visited Turkey to attend the NATO Summit. Through exchanges with NATO leaders, we hope he will analyze the factors behind the recent signs of stagnation in K-defense industry orders and its peaking out, and use this as an opportunity to seriously consider export strategies for the "K-defense industry 2.0" era.' (Edited by Hinata)