If you are facing the very real possibility of combat, what kind of lunatic would buy an F-35 if they could buy an F-15SE?
I think SK should be investing in hundreds of short range weapons; not 60 super-fighters. Their enemy is within artillery range not 2000 miles away. NK can hit Soul with 1,000,000 artillery rounds per hour. 60 planes won’t do anything about that in time.
I wonder how the F-X III compares?
Taiwan also had a domestic fighter program but it was hardly any better than an F-16 I think.