Navy's 1,000-ton corvette to retire after 36 years in service

The Navy's 1,000-ton Gwangmyeong corvette is set to retire next week after 36 years in service protecting the nation's coastal area, the armed service said Friday. Ahead of the Pohang-class warship's official retirement Wednesday, the Navy held a ceremony marking its discharge earlier in the day at a naval base in Jinhae, some 310 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to the Navy. Commissioned in 1990, the warship served as a core naval asset, equipped with 76 mm and 40 mm shells, anti-ship missiles and lightweight torpedoes. Notably, the corvette successfully tracked down a North Korean semi-submarine boat that had infiltrated waters off Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, for about seven hours before sinking it with naval gunfire in 1998. The Navy said it has deployed a 2,500-ton Incheon-class, 3,100-ton Daegu-class and the new 3,600-ton Chungnam-class frigates to safeguard their assigned waters to replace the outgoing warships.