Lieutenant Colonel Park Yeonsu Returns to Cheonan Ship After 5050 Days

New Cheonan Ship Captain Inaugurated... "Immediate, Strong, Final Response to Enemy Provocation"

On the 22nd, Lieutenant Colonel Park Yeon-su is looking around the relief statue of the 46 Cheonan Ship heroes at the Cheonan Ship 46 Heroes Memorial Monument at the Navy 2nd Fleet Command. (Photo by the Navy)

Lieutenant Colonel Park Yeon-su, who served as the operations officer on the Cheonan, which was sunk by a North Korean torpedo in 2010, stated on the 22nd, ahead of his inauguration as the new Cheonan commander, "If the enemy provokes, I will immediately, strongly, and relentlessly retaliate, putting the honor of my Cheonan comrades on the line."

Before the inauguration ceremony held in the afternoon, Lieutenant Colonel Park visited the Cheonan 46 Warriors Memorial at the Navy 2nd Fleet Command to pay his respects and conveyed his determination through the Navy. He said, "Returning with a stronger Cheonan, I will carefully lead the crew so that they feel pride and confidence while steadfastly defending the West Sea and the Northern Limit Line (NLL)."

He recalled, "After the Cheonan attack, I even considered quitting military service, but I believed that protecting the nation's seas was the mission left to me by my fallen comrades, so I have continued to guard the sea." He added, "I expected and hoped to be assigned as the Cheonan commander because I thought I would regret serving as a commander on any other ship for the rest of my life," expressing, "I feel an immense sense of responsibility."

Lieutenant Colonel Park emphasized, "The fallen comrades still vividly appear before my eyes, and the memories remain fresh. With the mindset of going to the battlefield together with all Cheonan comrades, if the enemy provokes, I will turn that place into their grave."

The Navy stated that it has been 5,050 days since the Cheonan attack on March 26, 2010, when Lieutenant Colonel Park last worked on the Cheonan. Commissioned in 2006 as part of the 101st class of naval officers, he has served as the chief of the Chamsuri-276 patrol boat, operations officer on the Cheonan, and personnel staff officer at the Jinhae Naval Base Command. He was selected as the new Cheonan commander by the Navy Officer Assignment Review Board at the end of last year. The new Cheonan is a 2,800-ton frigate measuring 122 meters in length, 14 meters in width, and 35 meters in height, with a top speed of 30 knots (55 km/h). It is equipped with one maritime operational helicopter, a 5-inch naval gun, and anti-ship missiles. Delivered to the Navy in May last year, it underwent seven months of ship performance verification, operational capability evaluation, and comprehensive combat power assessment before being operationally deployed to the 2nd Fleet Command on the 23rd of last month.