The Korean way to acquiring the competence to plan and build your own submarines is downright textbook. In the 80s of the XX century, the Koreans built 3 miniature submarines of the Dolgorae kind with a submarine displacement of only 175 tons. At the same time, negotiations were underway on the acquisition of German submarines and the licence to build them in Korea. The choice fell on the 209/1200 type. The prototype was built in Kiel at the HDW shipyard, and the next 2 from parts supplied by the Germans at the Daewoo shipyard in Okpo, that is, already in South Korea. Subsequently, the licence order was extended to 6 more ships, which allowed MW South Korea in the period 1993-2001 century to take possession of a full of 9 proven submarines 209/1200 designated there as KSS-I or kind Jang Bogo (SS 061) from the name of the first German-built vessel.
