Koo Bon-sang, chairman of LIG, is putting effort into networking and lobbying activities in the United States to enter the world's largest defense market. The leading subsidiary LIG Nex1 is currently pushing for the export of the surface-to-surface guided weapon, Poniard, to the United States.
Chairman Koo has been reported to have found it difficult to visit the United States due to restrictions on visa issuance, but recently he attended a U.S.-South Korea alliance event after visiting Washington, D.C.
According to the defense industry on the 7th, Chairman Koo received a plaque of appreciation at the '1st Korean War Veterans Support Night' event held on the 21st of last month at a hotel in Washington, D.C., organized by the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation (KWVMF), for his contributions to the U.S.-South Korea alliance through continuous support. LIG participated as the main sponsor of the annual support night event, which was held for the first time since the foundation was established in 1995.
Chairman Koo is said to have a good relationship with members of the KWVMF board, including former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert. The event was attended by many pro-South Korea figures in the United States, including Harry Harris, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and former Indo-Pacific commander. After serving as the U.S. ambassador during the first term of President Trump, Harris has been a senior advisor at the defense and security consulting firm Beacon Global Strategies in Washington, D.C. since last year.
Chairman Koo's public visit to the United States is known to be his first since his special pardon during the Lunar New Year holiday in February last year. In 2012, when he was the vice chairman of LIG Nex1, he was sentenced to four years in prison for issuing fraudulent corporate bonds of LIG Construction and was released at the end of 2016. After being restricted from employment for five years under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, he returned to management at LIG Nex1 as a non-registered executive in 2021. It is reported that although Chairman Koo found it difficult to travel to the United States due to visa issues, he was able to visit the U.S. following his pardon last year.
Chairman Koo is also focusing on lobbying to secure exports to the United States. According to reports covered by the U.S. Lobbying Disclosure Act, LIG Nex1 signed a lobbying contract with the U.S. law firm Nelson Mullins in January. The dedicated lobbyists are Connie Myers and Christopher Cushing. The areas of lobbying are marked as budget and defense.
LIG Nex1 is pushing for the export of the guided missile Poniard to the United States. If the deal is successful, it will mark the first export record to the United States among domestically developed weapons systems. Poniard was designated as a weapons system for the U.S. Department of Defense's Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) in 2019, and recorded a 100% hit rate up until its final test launch conducted in July of last year in the waters of Hawaii. FCT is a process by which the U.S. evaluates the weapons systems of allied countries before adopting them.
Expectations for the export contract to be imminent were high as the performance was recognized by the U.S. side; however, concerns about export delays have emerged following the inauguration of President Trump in his second term. This is because if President Trump shows skepticism about the introduction of foreign weapons systems, it could hinder budget allocation or congressional approval.
A source in the defense industry said, "It seems that Chairman Koo is increasing direct activities in the U.S. considering President Trump's 'America First' stance and trying to find more points of contact with the Trump administration."