South Korean officials on Tuesday flew to Jakarta to claim development costs Indonesia owes to Korea for the joint development of next-generation KF-X fighters.

According to industry sources, a Korean task force of 10 officials from Korea Aerospace Industries and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration will renegotiate with Indonesian officials from Wednesday to Thursday on how the Southeast Asian country will deliver its portion of development costs for the KF-X project.

The joint KF-X project requires 8.7 trillion won ($7.4 billion) for development. Indonesia is responsible for 20 percent of the costs, which is approximately 1.7 trillion won. However, Indonesia has been delaying its payments recently, with 500.3 billion won overdue as of April.

Indonesia, while withholding the payment, has reportedly still been seeking technology transfers from KAI, the developer of the KF-X fighters.

“Indonesian officials have requested DAPA to keep the renegotiation confidential,” a DAPA official said. “Only the Korean task force in the field will know which technology Indonesia requests for transfer.”

This month, the Indonesian government said it sliced the cost-sharing rate to 18.8 percent in the last renegotiation, though the target was 15 percent. 

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)