Moon Jae-in allegedly has his eyes on 20 F-35A planes – the move comes two months after Donald Trump announced plans to deal military equipment to Seoul in a deal worth billions of dollars.
South Korea’s Joongang Ilbo newspaper cited several government sources in its report.
Back in September, the Republican firebrand announced plans to bolster the defences of Kim Jong-un’s neighbour.
After the agreement was made, South Korea’s presidential Blue House made a statement.
It read: “The two leaders agreed to the principle of revising the missile guideline to a level desired by South Korea, sharing the view that it was necessary to strengthen South Korea’s defence capabilities in response to North Korea’s provocations and threats.”
The White House added that the President “provided his conceptual approval of planned purchases by South Korea of billions of dollars in American military equipment”.
Back in 2014, South Korea announced plans to buy 40 F-35As from US contractor Lockheed Martin.
The single-engine stealth fighter is the fifth generation of craft that is designed to invoke deadly ground and air attacks.
The vehicle is armed with a GAU-22/A four-barrel cannon that is equipped with covert features.
Stealth capabilities of the craft come from the radar-absorbent materials the F-35A is crafted from – infrared signature and visual signature reduction measures are incorporated into its deadly arsenal.
The internals of the stealth plane are equally as technologically savvy with a glass touchscreen moulded into the cockpit.
Last night, South Korea saw a defector from its rogue neighbour cross the land border amid thick fog.
The “low-ranking” soldier appeared in front of a guard post on the mid-western front at around 11pm GMT on Wednesday (8.04am local time on Thursday) according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
North Korean soldiers reportedly did not shoot at the latest defector and no unusual movement of the North’s border troops was detected.
But, South Korean guards fired around 20 warning shots at North Korean troops searching for a defector who fled across the heavily militarised border between the two countries on Thursday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
This is the fourth defection from the hermit kingdom this year alone.
A South Korean official said the related authorities were looking into the defector’s intentions.
The soldier is understood to have defected across the land border which is separated by the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) – one of the most heavily guarded and fortified regions in the world.
The DMZ is littered with scores of mines and barbed-wire fences and is extremely difficult to cross.
About 1,000 people flee from the North to the South each year, but very few go via the DMZ.