Danjin is a couple of hours south of Seoul, and the Port area has established a tourism park which includes a range of attractions, one of which is a naval park containing the FRAM’med Gearing class destroyer Jeon Ju (ex-USS Rogers), and the LST Hwa Won (ex LST-1080), along with a few armoured vehicles and an S-2 Tracker. Both ships are on blocks and out of the water at low tide.
Hwa San was transferred to the ROK Navy in 1958, and Jeon Ju in 1981. Both served until 1999 and opened as museum ships in Danjin in 2012.
This is the first time I had been to a preserved LST, and I discovered that their large open tank deck makes them an ideal platform for a museum, as there is plenty of space to create displays. A lot of effort had gone into the displays in the LST, including, for example, a large diorama of a naval battle that apparently took place during the Korean War. Unfortunately for me, virtually all the signage was in Korean. Only the tank deck and the upper deck were open to visitors, and there was no access to the superstructure, bridge etc.
The Jeon Ju had the forward superstructure, 2 deck, and most of the upper deck open for visitors, but they had built a deckhouse on the after superstructure to house a restaurant, and as a result the after part of the upper deck was closed off.
Both ships seemed to be in pretty good condition. Visiting the museum is achievable as a daytrip from Seoul on public transport catching an express bus to Danjin, and then a local bus to the port – but I was defeated by the language barrier and couldn’t work out where to catch the local bus – so had to catch a taxi for the last 17km.
Links:
https://yacht.dpto.or.kr/sub5/5_4_v.php?idx=8&