Kang Hoon-sik, the presidential chief of staff, will meet on the 6th with Stephen Fuhr, Canada's special Minister for defense procurement. It has been nine days since Kang visited Canada on the 28th as the president's special envoy for strategic economic cooperation and discussed winning the 60 trillion won "Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP)" with Minister Fuhr. Minister Fuhr is the procurement policy chief overseeing the project and is currently visiting Korea.
Cheong Wa Dae said regarding this, "The Canadian submarine project is in a situation where competition for orders between countries is underway," and asked, "To prevent difficulties in defense exports caused by speculative or inaccurate reports, please exercise caution in reporting until the government or corporations make an official statement."
CPSP is a project in which Canada will spend about 60 trillion won to introduce up to 12 new 3,000-ton (t) diesel submarines. Korea's Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries are currently competing with the German corporation ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS). However, given that a significant portion of Korea's submarine technology was transferred from Germany and that Canada shares a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) security cooperation framework with Germany, active diplomatic support at the government level is also needed.
Earlier, on the 31st, after finishing his visit to Canada and on his way back at Incheon International Airport, Kang told reporters, "We assess that our submarine technology is far better (than Germany's), and we are confident that we can overcome the issues through industrial cooperation with Canada going forward."
Kang also said, "At the meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney together with corporations, there was an active courtship toward Korea." He added, "It could take as little as about six months or as long as up to a year for results," and noted, "There will also be a process in which the Canadian side visits Korea to confirm their actual intent."