KPC3450: Agency for Defense Development 50th Anniversary

The Republic of Korea (ROK) has constantly faced challenges from great powers as it holds high geopolitical value. In response to such challenges, Korea established the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) in 1970 to protect national security amidst the changing security environment, resulting in possessing world-class weapon systems and key technologies. Honoring its 50th anniversary, Korea Post is issuing the commemorative stamp 50th Anniversary — Agency for Defense Development.

While Korea established the ROK Army, Navy, and Air Force after its liberation in 1945, the peninsula was split into two via ideological conflict — South Korea receiving military support from the United States and North Korea from the Soviet Union. As the Soviet Union and China actively supported North Korea at that time, the disparity in the military power of South and North Korea widened further. In response, South Korea built its own production facilities for munitions and defense equipment, including the ROK Army Armory. With the Nixon Doctrine announced by U.S. President Nixon in 1969, which stated that “problems […] will be handled by, and responsibility for it taken by, the Asian nations themselves,” South Korea created the Agency for Defense Development on August 6, 1970 to strengthen and promote its self-reliant national defense.

The Agency for Defense Development, Korea’s only research agency for defense science and technologies (S&T), has deployed 355 weapon systems operated across various battlefields such as land, sea and air, and transformed Korea into a country with one of the most advanced defense systems. While discussions for denuclearization and a peace regime on the Korean peninsula are on-going, the Agency for Defense Development is preparing for a transition towards peace by advancing state-of-the-art defense science and technology (S&T).

The commemorative stamp features a Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (MUAV) and a satellite antenna. The MUAV is a strategic UAV system developed with cutting-edge Korean technology, which performs reconnaissance on ground targets day and night with high-resolution imaging sensors and carries out any mission across the Korean peninsula with its satellite link. The satellite antenna uses a communications satellite at 36,000 km above the equator and enables communications by transmitting information including voice, image, and data regardless of topography. We hope that the commemorative stamp reminds you of our self-reliant national defense, which has been Korean citizens’ long-standing desire, and instills pride in Korea’s defense science and technology (S&T), which has made remarkable advances.