According to South Korean media on Monday, a delegation will travel to Poland this weekend to assess the effectiveness of the drones.

The Polish government proposed the sale of drones to Seoul during a visit by South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik in June.

The Polish unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which have proved to be effective during the conflict in Ukraine, can be manufactured on a large scale at a relatively affordable cost. Each unit costs PLN 290,000 (€67,000).

The potential purchase of drones appears to be part of a burgeoning network of defense ties between the two countries. Poland has signed a number of huge deals to buy South Korean military hardware, including the purchase of around 1,000 tanks.

“We need to ensure mutual benefits to a certain extent if we want to continue our long-term relationship (with Poland),” a South Korean official was quoted as saying in a South Korean paper.

“If we buy Polish drones, the export of our arms to Poland will become even easier.”

The daily added that amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula and threats from North Korea, there is an urgent need to significantly scale up the deployment of UAVs within the South Korean military.

South Korea currently operates 10,000 UAVs, a number equivalent to what Ukraine uses in just one month of its conflict with Russia.