South Korea's Navy inaugurates new 2,800-ton frigate

May 3 (UPI) -- South Korea held a launching ceremony for a new 2,800-ton frigate, the Daejeon, as Seoul monitors North Korean military activity.

The frigate is one of eight warships that are to be completed by 2023. The project began in 2011. The new warships are designed to replace aging frigates and Patrol Control Craft, South Korean news service EDaily reported Monday.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, the ship's manufacturer, hosted the ceremony at its Okpo shipyard. Seoul's Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Book Suk-jong was in attendance, along with Jeong Seung-gyun, chief of planning and management at naval headquarters, and Seo Il-jun, a National Assembly representative for the city of Geoje, the report said.

The frigate includes weapons that can target intruding submarines and warships, including a five-inch artillery gun, anti-ship missiles and long-range anti-submarine missiles, the report said. According to Naval News, a 16-cell Korean vertical launching system, the K-VLS, can deploy Korean Surface-to-Air Anti-Missiles, or K-SAAM, and the Haeryong tactical land-attack cruise missiles.

South Korea's Navy said the frigate includes "advanced sonar and power systems" for anti-submarine capabilities. According to EDaily, the frigate can be equipped with hull-mounted sonar -- to provide underwater sensor capability. A towed array sonar system that can be used to detect and track intruding submarines will also guide the ship, the Navy said.

The South Korean frigate ceremony takes places a week after Seoul's joint chiefs of staff confirmed that U.S. and South Korean intelligence authorities are tracking trends in North Korean submarine activity.

Recent commercial satellite imagery showed North Korea was active at Nampo shipyard.

"The North Korean leader has made clear his desires to perfect long-range ballistic missile capabilities to reach the United States. An operational [submarine-launched ballistic missile] capability would enhance the survivability of their nuclear deterrent," U.S. analysts Joseph Bermudez and Victor Cha have said.

U.S. President Joe Biden has called North Korea a "security threat," a statement that was condemned by Pyongyang over the weekend.