The ROKS Jang Bogo, South Korea's first naval submarine, is set to retire Wednesday after 34 years of service protecting the nation's maritime sovereignty, the Navy said. Ahead of its official decommission, the retirement ceremony for the 1,200-ton submarine is scheduled to take place Monday at the Submarine Force Command in Changwon, some 380 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to the armed services. The event will be attended by some 300 personnel, including Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Kang Dong-gil and the ship's former crew and their family members. Other vessels, such as the Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine and the Son Won Il-class submarine, will be docked nearby to join the event, the Navy said. Commissioned in 1993 as the country's first naval submarine, the ROKS Jang Bogo has sailed about 633,000 kilometers in total during its time in service, a distance equivalent to circling the globe 15 times. The vessel took part in major submarine warfare drills, such as the South Korea-U.S. Silent Shark exercise and the multinational Pacific Reach submarine rescue exercise. It embarked