As the paradigm of the global defense industry changes due to the Russia-Ukraine war, Korea's cutting-edge con ventional weapons systems are attracting attention from around the world. In 2023, Korea ranked 9th in world arms exports, and is pursuing innovation in the defense industry with the goal of becoming the world's 4th largest defense exporter by 2027. The defense industry is a national strategic industry that requires a long period of time and a large budget, and defense technology is a core technology that has a great impact on the advancement of defense and the national economy. Over the past five years, Korea has suffered economic losses worth approximately 25 trillion won due to the outflow of cutting-edge technology overseas, and there is an urgent need for institutional improvement to prevent the outflow of defense technology. Therefore, this study presented Korea's defense industry development stra tegy by examining the laws and systems that the three key players in the Indo-Pacific region, the United States, Chi na, and Japan, are promoting to protect defense industry technology. To foster the defense industry as a promising future industry in Korea, it is necessary to respond to the fast-evolving pace of development of advanced science and technology in connection with securing technological sovereignty and protect defense technology, which is a key tech nology of the country, by improving related laws and systems.