The paper said that the shift echoes the 1969 Nixon Doctrine, when then-President Richard Nixon told Asian allies to take charge of their own defense and pulled about 20,000 American troops from the peninsula.
Threat level rising, South Korea poured money into a homegrown arms industry, licensing and reverse-engineering foreign weapons.
That gamble has matured into a global business.
South Korea now ranks as the world's ninth-largest arms exporter and stands second only to the United States as a supplier to NATO's European members.
Combined revenue at its four defense champions — Hanwha Group, Hyundai Rotem, LIG Nex1 and Korea Aerospace Industries — is projected at about $37 billion this year, nearly quadruple the 2021 figure.
Two wars, in Ukraine and Iran, have stoked urgent demand, while many longtime U.S. allies have bristled at Trump's tariffs, broken treaties and blunt insults.
As Politico put it, "global instability... may be bad for the world. But in South Korea, it's good for business."
Poland anchors the surge, signing a $13.7 billion deal for K2 tanks, rocket launchers and artillery after Russia's invasion of Ukraine left jittery Eastern European governments scrambling to rearm.
Buyers prize Seoul's swift delivery — a reflex of the "bbali-bbali," or hurry-hurry, culture — along with low prices and willing technology transfers.
South Korea has also won fans with its combat credibility, underscored when LIG Nex1's Cheongung-II air-defense system reportedly downed 29 of 30 targets over the United Arab Emirates during the war with Iran.
Still, the climb toward Seoul's goal of becoming the world's fourth-largest exporter by 2030 is steepening, as European nations rebuild their own defense industries and Japan eases its arms-export curbs, sharpening the competition ahead.
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