The launch ceremony took place at Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction in Busan.
The LST, named after Cheonwangbong, the highest peak of Mt. Jiri in the southwestern part of the country, was built with domestic technology. It has a maximum speed of 23 knots (40 kilometers) per hour, and is 126 meters long and 19 meters wide. The LST is more than 5 knots faster than existing LSTs.
The landing ship with a 120-man crew is capable of carrying about 300 armed forces along with landing craft mechanized (LCM), amphibious assault vehicles (AAV), tanks and two helicopters.
The Cheonwangbong will be delivered to the Navy in the second half of next year. Deployment is scheduled for 2015.
The basic design of the next-generation LST was made by Hanjin and it took almost two years to build it.
By Keat Min Woo
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com