South Korea will hand over a decommissioned corvette to another country for the first time.
 
The Korean Navy held a ceremony Wednesday afternoon at its headquarters in Jinhae on the southern coast, celebrating its transfer of the one-thousand-ton corvette, Anyang, to Colombia. Dignitaries from both countries, including Navy officials, took part in the ceremony.
 
The Anyang, which will change its name to Nariño after a Colombian independence activist, will arrive in Colombia by the end of September.
 
The corvette was put into service for the first time in 1983 and was decommissioned in 2011. Colombia is the only Latin American country that sent its troops to help South Korea during the Korean War. About 51-hundred Colombian soldiers fought as part of the UN forces in the war.
 
A Navy official said the transfer of the decommissioned corvette to the Latin American country is expected to help boost bilateral cooperation in the defense industries.
 
Early this year, Korea signed a deal to export two coast patrol boats and a guided missile to Colombia.