Sailors attend a launching ceremony for the Dosan Ahn Chang-ho, South Korea's indigenous 3,000-ton submarine, at a shipyard on Geoje Island, South Korea. The submarine, named after a highly respected South Korean independence fighter, is the Navy's first homegrown mid-class underwater strategic weapons system. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
May 24 (Asia Today) -- South Korea's domestically designed and built 3,000-ton Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine has successfully crossed the Pacific Ocean, setting the longest voyage record in the history of the South Korean Navy's submarine operations.
The Navy said the Dosan Ahn Chang-ho arrived Saturday morning, Korea time, at Esquimalt Naval Base in Victoria, British Columbia, to take part in a South Korea-Canada combined naval cooperation exercise. The frigate Daejeon also accompanied the submarine.
The submarine departed Jinhae Naval Base in South Gyeongsang Province on March 25 and sailed about 14,000 kilometers, or 8,700 miles, one way through Guam and Hawaii before reaching Canada's west coast. The Navy said the mission proved the long-range operational capability and habitability of South Korea's diesel-electric and air-independent propulsion submarine.
