South Korea will seek in the long term to procure advanced fighter jets whose capacity will be equivalent to U.S.-built F-22 Raptors, the Korea Herald reported on Saturday.

According to the daily newspaper, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo said on Friday that South Korea will make a decision after considering various factors such as the military power balance around the Korean Peninsula, overall relations with the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

South Korea will introduce the fifth generation fighters, such as F-22s, sometime later, the newspaper quoted Kim as saying.

Kim's remarks came after Dennis Wilder, the senior director for East Asian Affairs on the U.S. White House National Security Council staff, hinted to sell 100 U.S. Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22 Raptor fighter jets to Japan earlier this week.

South Korea is pushing forward a purchase of F-15K fighter jets from the United States. South Korean military experts expressed their concerns that the sales of F-22 fighters to Japan would gravely distort the current military balance in the region, citing the fact that the F-22 is the most advanced U.S. air-superiority fighter.

"I have ordered acquisition officials not to stick to a specific aircraft model for the purchase even in case of Boeing

being the sole bidder. If Boeing's proposed contract terms don't meet our demands, we may not buy the F-15K aircraft," Kim said.

"F-15K is a comparatively outmoded model compared to the F-22 and F-35," he added.

Source: Xinhua