South Korea launches $1 bln advanced destroyer

South Korea yesterday launched a destroyer, its first with an advanced weapons system for shooting down enemy missiles and aircraft, in a move to strengthen its defences amid an arms build-up in the region.

The destroyer named King Sejong was built in Ulsan at a cost of about 1 trillion won ($1.07 billion) and will be the country's most advanced ship to counter a possible attack from North Korea, which has hundreds of ballistic missiles.

The ship, with the high-tech Aegis weapons system, can carry 16 ship-to-ship missiles, 128 ship-to-air missiles as well as cruise missiles and torpedoes, the Defence Ministry said.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and several top navy officials, decked out in white dress uniforms, attended the launch at Ulsan on the east coast. South Korea plans to launch two more Aegis-equipped destroyers by 2013, a ministry official said. The system, first developed for the US military, integrates radar and targeting systems to allow a ship to strike at targets on land, in the air and at sea simultaneously.

The two Koreas are technically still at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a truce and not with a peace treaty.

South Korea's military has said it sees its neighbour, which test-fired a volley of missiles last July and conducted a nuclear test in October, as the main threat to its security.

Seoul has also expressed concern about the military build-up of neighbours Japan and China.

The United States and Japan are studying a joint missile defence system with Australia to counter growing threats in the Asia-Pacific region, a Japanese government source said earlier this week in Tokyo.