the 1960s, South Korea was dependent on the United States to supply its armed forces, but after the elaboration of President Richard M. Nixon's policy of Vietnamization in the early 1970s, South Korea began to manufacture its own weapons. Since the 1980s, South Korea has begun exporting military equipment and technology to boost its international trade. Some of its key military export projects include the T-155 Firtina self-propelled artillery for Turkey; the K11 air-burst rifle for United Arab Emirates; the Bangabandhu class guided-missile frigate for Bangladesh; fleet tankers such as Sirius class for the navies of Australia, New Zealand, and Venezuela; Makassar class amphibious assault ships for Indonesia; and the KT-1 trainer aircraft for Turkey, Indonesia and Peru. South Korea also exports various core components of other countries' advanced military hardware. Those hardware include modern aircraft such as F-15K fighters and AH-64 attack helicopters which will be used by Singapore, whose airframes will be built by Korea Aerospace Industries in a joint-production deal with Boeing. In other major outsourcing and joint-production deals, South Korea has jointly produced the S-300 air defense system of Russia via Samsung Group, and will facilitate the sales of Mistral class amphibious assault ships to Russia that will be produced by STX Corporation. The deal was cancelled in 2014 due to Russia's actions in Ukraine and the ships were sold to Egypt instead. South Korea's defense exports were $1.03 billion in 2008 and $1.17 billion in 2009. Tourism In 2012, 11.1 million foreign tourists visited South Korea, making it one of the most visited countries in the world, up from 8.5 million in 2010. Many tourists from all around Asia visit South Korea which has been due to the rise of Korean Wave (Hallyu). Seoul is the principal tourist destination for visitors; popular tourist destinations outside of Seoul include Seorak-san national park, the historic city of Gyeongju and semi-tropical Jeju Island. In 2014 South Korea hosted the League of Legends season 4 championship and then, in 2018, the season 8 championship. Trade statistics Mergers and acquisitions Since 1991 there has been a steady upwards trend in South Korean M&A until 2018 with only a short break around 2004. Since 1991 around 18,300 deals in, into or out of South Korea have been announced, which sum up to a total value of over 941. bil. USD. The year 2016 has been the year with the largest deal