Korea launched its first Aegis destroyer at a shipyard in the southeastern port city of Ulsan on Friday (May 25), becoming the fifth country in the world to own such a ship, the Navy said.

The KDX-III destroyer, which is 166 meters long and has a displacement of 7,600 tons, was built at the Ulsan dockyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. at a cost of 1 trillion won ($1 billion).

Named King Sejong after the Joseon Dynasty monarch who helped create the Korean alphabet in the 15th century, the warship is the most powerful in the Navy.

"This is a valuable achievement of our national defense science and technology combined with our shipbuilding skills, and a splendid demonstration of our self-defense capabilities," President Roh Moo-hyun said speaking during the launching ceremony.

"It will help build up the power of our Navy as the world's top-class warship with the most advanced defense system and striking power."

Also attending the ceremony were Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo and Chief of the Naval Operations Admi. Song Young-moo, as well as key officials of the shipbuilder.

Korea became the fifth country in the world to have the Aegis destroyer following the United States, Japan, Spain and Norway and the third to have the Aegis ship with a displacement of 7,600 tons. The Aegis destroyers in Spain and Norway have a displacement of 4,600 tons each.

The new destroyer is armed with 16 ship-to-ship "Haesung" (sea star) missiles, 128 ship-to-air missiles and 32 ship-to-surface cruise missiles that could give the ship strategic capabilities.

It also has torpedoes and close-in weapons systems to deal with sea-skimming missiles.

The Aegis combat system, build by Lockheed Martin, is a high-tech, integrated weapons control system that makes use of AN/SPY-1D multi-functional phased array radar. It allows the ship successfully combat multiple surface, underwater and aerial targets.

"We expect the King Sejong will greatly improve the Navy's capability to carry out operations," a spokesman for the Navy said, adding that the ship will take a main role in the Navy's future mobile fleet.

The ship's maximum speed is 30 knots with a usual cruising speed of 20 knots. It will be deployed for naval operations in 2009 after one-and-a-half years of test operations.

The government plans to commission three Aegis destroyers by 2012 with a total budget of about 3 trillion won.

The spokesman said the name King Sejong was chosen because of the importance of the king in Korean history. Besides supporting the creation of the Korean alphabet, called "Hangeul" in Korean, the king strengthened the country's national defense capability and is highly respected by the people, the official said.