The South Korean Navy has launched two high-speed guided-missile patrol boats to safeguard the country’s western sea border with North Korea.

The two patrol boats Han Sang Guk and the Jo Cheon Hyeong are equipped with anti-ship guided missiles with a range of up to 140km.

The ships weighing 400t each, are coated with limited stealth technology and bullet-proof material and can carry a total of 40 crew members sailing at the maximum speed of 74km/h.

The patrol boats were named in honour of Han Sang-guk and Cho Cheon-hyeong, two soldiers who died in a 2002 naval clash with North Korea.

The patrol boats will be deployed by September 2010 following a series of performance tests and readjustments.