Thirteen years after a North Korean submersible sank its namesake, the ROKS Cheonan has been reborn as a state-of-the-art frigate.

The Korean Navy said that the two-thousand-800-ton combat-ready escort ship will begin full-scale operations with the Second Fleet Command on Saturday to defend Korean waters in the West Sea.

The warship joined the Second Fleet on Saturday morning after seven months of trials to test its operational and combat capacity.

The brand new ROKS Cheonan is 122 meters long with a beam of 14 meters,  a depth of 35 meters and has a top speed of 30 knots.

After the ceremony welcoming the ROKS Cheonan to the fleet, its officers and sailors visited the memorial of the 46 seamen killed in the 2010 sinking of the previous patrol corvette to carry the name.

Commander Han Gyu-cheol, the captain of the new ROKS Cheonan, said at the ceremony that his crew took to heart the sacrifices and patriotism of the 46 seamen killed and stand ready to punish enemy provocations immediately.