South Korea is threatening to cancel all defense deals with Israel if Jerusalem decides to purchase a trainer plane from Italy rather than from Seoul. Israel's Air Force is due to make a decision in the coming months on whether to purchase 20 T-50 jets from South Korea in a $1 billion deal or the Italian M346 trainer planes instead. The matter was raised during discussions this week between South Korea's Ambassador to Israel and the director general of Israel's Defense Ministry. Next week the head of the South Korean defense procurement is expected to visit Israel to discuss the matter. In recent years South Korea purchased a number of radar and air missile defense systems from Israel.
