South Korea has emerged as the third largest buyer of U.S. weapons in terms of combined purchases over the past decade. 

According the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality, the U.S. sold around ten-point-64 billion U.S. dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia between 2008 and 2017. 

Australia was the second largest arms client for the U.S. at around seven-point-28 billion dollars, followed by South Korea at around six-point-73 billion and the United Arab Emirates(UAE) at around six-point-76 billion dollars. 

The combined U.S. weapons sales to South Korea accounts for 16 percent of Seoul’s defense budget for this year or 46 trillion won. 

The U.S. exported around 90 billion dollars worth of weapons around the world in the decade-long period. 

South Korea ranks as the 13th largest importer of conventional weapons between 2013 and 2017.