South Korea is seeking to give its decommissioned destroyer to Colombia for free to help boost its arms exports to the South American region, a government source said Sunday.

“We are thinking of handing over to Colombia the 1,200-ton destroyer Gunsan, which was decommissioned on Sept. 29, in the first half of next year,” the source said, declining to be named.

“Apart from this, we are also considering offering other pieces of decommissioned military equipment to other South American nations.”

It is the first time Seoul has given its large destroyer, weighing more than 1,000 tons, to a foreign country for free. In the past, the government offered to Colombia 8,000 naval gun bullets, which were not in use, in efforts to sell its indigenous KA-1 light attack aircraft.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)