At the end of the 1980s the South Korean navy started to improve its overall capability and began to operate more advanced vessels.

[2] The first order placed late in 1987 covered three boats, one to be completed in Germany and the other two in South Korea from German-supplied kits.

There followed by two additional three-boat orders placed in October 1989 and January 1994 for boats of South Korean construction.

The older boats were upgraded, it is believed that the modernization included a hull stretch to the Type 1400 length, provision for tube-launched Harpoon missiles and the addition of a towed-array sonar.

She participated in HARPOONEX, part of a live-fire, multinational naval exercise with the United States Navy during which a decommissioned cruiser, USS Oklahoma City (CG-5), was sunk by Yi Cheon.