KADEX 2026: Why This Military Expo in Gyeryong is Crucial for South Korea's Defense Industry

[Gyeryong] The organizing committee for KADEX 2026, South Korea’s largest ground-forces defense expo, said on the 19th it will address procedural criticisms raised by the National Assembly’s Defense Committee and defended holding the event on the Gyeryong Air Base emergency runway in Gyeryong, South Chungcheong Province.

The committee acknowledged “some administrative shortcomings,” including failures to submit security pledges and delays in venue-use applications, and said it is treating those issues seriously.

It argued the problems are administrative and fixable through stronger procedures and system improvements, not reasons to cancel a global K-defense platform. The committee pledged to tighten security guidelines and introduce a digital access-control system as part of a tougher corrective package.

The committee said KADEX belongs in Gyeryong because of the synergy with the local defense cluster.

It noted that the 2024 Gyeryong event successfully operated exhibition space larger than Seoul’s COEX and posted record results.

The committee added that Gyeryong hosts the three service headquarters and key defense research institutes, making it uniquely positioned for on-site, face-to-face engagement between military decision-makers and industry suppliers.

With roughly 90% of global exhibitions concentrated in the capital region, the committee said KADEX serves as a symbolic model of balanced regional development, and that necessary infrastructure investments are already in place.

KADEX 2026 has confirmed participation from 10 countries — including the United States and Saudi Arabia — and 450 domestic and international exhibitors.

The committee warned that canceling or relocating the event now would harm domestic firms that have already budgeted for the show and would damage national credibility with international partners.

It also stressed the economic impact for Gyeryong City and South Chungcheong Province from tens of thousands of visitors is a significant, nonreplaceable benefit.

Going forward, KADEX will operate under an integrated governance model in cooperation with the Ministry of National Defense, Army Headquarters, Gyeryong City and South Chungcheong Province.

The committee said it will establish an integrated application and operations system to combine the Army’s Ground Forces Festival with Gyeryong City’s military culture festival to maximize administrative efficiency. Drawing on 12 years of experience hosting ground-forces defense expos, it said it will use the recent criticism to strengthen procedures and make KADEX 2026 a definitive export platform that elevates K-defense on the global stage.

A military culture festival official said overseas applications are closed and infrastructure investments are complete, warning that blocking the event now would erode administrative trust and inflict national losses. The official noted the Gyeryong Air Base emergency runway is an off-base facility with limited peacetime use and that the military culture festival and Army Ground Forces Festival have proceeded smoothly, so the Defense Committee has no grounds to challenge the venue.

Earlier, Bu Seung-chan, a Democratic Party member of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee, criticized at a recent full committee meeting that the Army Association — which organized the 2024 event — had not submitted a security pledge for the Gyeryong Air Base emergency runway, and called for KADEX 2026 to be halted immediately.