The build up of the ROK Navy continues:

The Navy plans to launch six 5,600-ton “mini-Aegis” destroyers between 2019 and 2026 in an effort to help facilitate coastal and blue-water operations, the service said Tuesday.

The plan was unveiled in a report submitted to a National Assembly inspection of the Navy at the Gyeryongdae military compound in South Chungcheong Province.

The medium-sized KDX-IIA destroyers equipped with SPY radar and close-in weapon systems will be a core part of the Navy’s strategic mobile fleet led by 7,600-ton KDX-III destroyers, it said.

The mobile fleet is to consist of two KDX-III destroyer-led squadrons involving KDX-II or KDX-IIA ships, support vessels, new frigates and attack submarines. A new naval base to be built on the southern island of Jeju by 2014 will serve as homeport for the fleet.

The Navy has launched two of the planned three KDX-III ships and is set to receive one more before 2012. The lead ship, Sejong the Great, began service last December and the second ship, Yi I, is scheduled to be operational later this year after sea trials.

A need to deploy more Aegis destroyers has been raised frequently with the South Korean Navy seeking to boost its blue-water operational capability beyond coastal defense against potential North Korean invasion.  [Korea Times via the Marmot's Hole]

You can read much more at both links.  Here is what is most interesting about this report is that the Koreans plan on equipping these destroyers with SM-6 missiles.  This will give South Korea added missile defense capability against North Korean tactical ballistic missiles.  Keep in mind though, that the SM-6 cannot intercept the current batch of KN-02′s being tested now by the North Koreans right now because of their cruise missile profile.