South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol visited the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) facility and gave a speech in front of the KF-21 Boramae prototype n°5, on which the Indonesian flag was not visible.

Under the terms of the original pact between South Korea and Indonesia, the latter was to bear 20% of the cost of developing the first phase of the KF-21 program (about $6.5 billion), for which it would receive the technology transfer needed to manufacture some 50 to 60 units in the country… and it would also receive prototype n°5.

But Jakarta kept delaying and spacing out its contributions until, at the end of the first phase, it had only paid a quarter of its commitments. It was only at the beginning of July that payments were resumed and according to the information that came to light, part of these contributions will be paid in «kind», that is, Indonesian commodities, and not in currency.

Relations between the partners seemed to be normalizing. Even last week, the South Korean and Indonesian defense ministers met and at that meeting Jakarta’s commitment to the KF-21 project was re-emphasized.

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However, although previous Boramae prototypes carried the Indonesian flag next to the Korean flag, during the Korean president’s visit to KAI, it became clear that this is not the case for the fifth aircraft produced for the test campaign.

Seoul is apparently waiting for concrete actions to show that Indonesia is really starting to bear its share of the cost before handing over the aircraft to them.