President Lee Jae-myung attended the launch ceremony for the Daeho Kim Jong-seo destroyer on the 30th and stressed self-reliant defense, saying that "security that leans on another's strength wavers along with it whenever that country's circumstances or situation change." With security threats mounting after a landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone along the western front, he signaled his intent to secure core capabilities including nuclear-powered submarines and manned-unmanned platform carriers.
Speaking at the launch of the Navy's most advanced Aegis ship at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries' Ulsan shipyard, Lee said he would "press ahead to the end toward realizing self-reliant defense." The Daeho Kim Jong-seo is the sixth vessel to complete a domestic Aegis destroyer program that began 19 years ago with the Sejong the Great. The ship measures 170 meters long and 21 meters wide, with a light displacement of about 8,200 tons, and can sail at speeds of up to 30 knots, or roughly 55 kilometers per hour.
It carries an advanced sonar system and a ballistic missile system developed with domestic technology. The vessel can also carry out interception missions, a capability the earlier Sejong the Great-class Aegis destroyers lacked, marking the completion of a core element of the country's sea-based mobile three-axis defense system.
Lee said South Korea "has become a country that designs, builds and operates world-class warships on its own." He added that "the defense industry is a core national industry" and that the country "must move advanced private-sector technology into the defense sector quickly."
Lee also pledged to "actively widen the path for academia and companies, not just the military, to conduct research and invest together," and said the government would "cut back complicated procedures and expand support so that new technologies are fielded as quickly as possible."
Chung Ki-sun, chairman of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, which built five of the six Aegis destroyers including the Daeho Kim Jong-seo, said the company would "firmly safeguard South Korea's economy and security with a sense of duty that we are the ones building the ships that guard the world's seas."
