The programme, which sought to develop an indigenously designed trainer aircraft, was a joint effort between aircraft manufacturer Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and government body Agency for Defence Development (ADD); the latter was responsible for overseeing the project, while the former performed the detailed design work as well as the majority of manufacturing activity.

[2] According to a KAI representative, the KO-1 is ideally suited for drug interdiction operations and that the company was pitching the variant towards countries in Latin America.

[3] On 8 March 2006, a KAI spokesperson announced that the company intended to export more than 150 improved versions of the KT-1 to various countries across both Central America and Southeast Asia.

[6][7][8] For light attack missions, the aircraft can carry various types of guns, bombs, rockets and missiles dependent upon customer requirements.

Other equipment can include external fuel tanks, a centrally mounted forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor and a laser range finder.

[15][16] On 25 April 2003, the first KT-1 was delivered to Indonesia, a move which represented the first Korean aircraft export; commenting at the time, KAI stated that it was presently in negotiations for a 13-trainer follow-on order.

[17] During early 2011, reported emerged that Indonesia was interested in further acquisitions, but South Korean officials denied that any further barter deals had been agreed.

On 15 March 2015, a serious midair collision occurred during a practice session for Malaysia's Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition.

[19][20] During June 2007, South Korea and Turkey successfully negotiated a ₩500 billion (equivalent to ₩626.09 billion or US$553.86 million in 2017)[21] contract for 40 (+15) KT-1s; this exchange involved the modular armor technology of the K2 Black Panther main battle tank (MBT), which Turkey hopes to use upon its own future indigenous Atlay MBT.

[24] During April 2015, it was announced that Turkey would procure a further 15 KT-1Ts as a stop-gap measure until development of its indigenous TAI Hürkuş trainer aircraft could be completed.