I do question their abilty to build the subs for us and everyone else. I fear a sub being modified to suit our requirements will have bugs in it that we will have to deal with. Plus I think getting the SK weapon systems and possibly helping to produce them might actually put us in a better position longterm. Not to mention that we would be adding more VLS capability to our fleet. Whereas the German product might have a tube launched NSM missile in the not so distant future.
Now comes the question is it better to get the German DM2A4 torpedo or the SK K761 Tiger Shark torpedo? Likely the cost of individual torpedos and improvement cycle favours the German weapon, just because of the number of users.
Politically, SK will not limit us in how we use our subs and weapons. It's quite possible that Germany might.
According to South Korea's DAPA, the Tiger Shark torpedo produced by LIG Nex1 for the ROK Navy will become fully operational by the end of this year.
www.navalnews.com
en.wikipedia.org