Navy boats decommissioned with battlefield records

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, June 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Navy said Tuesday it retired a pair of
patrol boats that have destroyed a North Korean submarine and a spy ship since
being commissioned in the 1980s.
The Donghae, commissioned in 1983, took part in a naval campaign that destroyed a
North Korean submarine found traveling in the South's southern sea in the late
1990s, the Navy said in a release.
The other boat, the 1984-commissioned Pohang, sank an armed North Korean spy ship
that breached the maritime border between the Koreas in the East Sea in 1986, it
said.
Hostilities linger between the Koreas after their 1950-53 Korean War ended in a
truce rather than a peace treaty. The countries also clashed in naval skirmishes
in the Yellow Sea in 1999 and 2002.
South Korean Navy officials held a ceremony Tuesday at a naval base on the
southern coast to bid farewell to the boats, which have conducted a combined 500
missions, the Navy said.
The deactivation is part of efforts by the South Korean military to cut down
maintenance costs, the Navy said, adding the ships will be cannibalized for
parts.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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