Despite warming ties on the peninsula, South Korea is not cutting back on planned weapons purchases, and is in fact accelerating some of them. Plans to buy their own AWACS planes have been moved up two years to 2002. A planned buy of 80 new fighters is on schedule, and the F-15K remains the front runner against the Russian Su-30, Eurofighter Typhoon, and French Rafale. The F-15K is likely to be the best of the F-15 series. It will mount the new APG-63V1 radar, the ALQ-135M self-protection jammer, an infrared search and track system, and the software to fire any weapon in the US arsenal as well as many other weapons. The South Koreans particularly want whatever new fighter they buy to carry the Israeli Python-4 dogfight missile.--Stephen V Cole