South Korea’s first ice-breaking vessel, the “Araon,” left port in New Zealand Tuesday to explore Antarctica.

The Araon departed from Lyttelton Port in Christchurch at 1 p.m., Korea time, for a mission to the South Pole to test its ice-breaking capabilities and also to inspect candidate sites for a second South Korean Antarctic research facility.

The 69-hundred-ton vessel will join with a Russian icebreaker midway between New Zealand and Antarctica around January 17th for ice-breaking surveys on the polar shore.

While in the Antarctic, the Araon will dock at Cape Burks before heading to Terra Nova Bay in early February for a detailed survey of research base sites.

All crew members --- including Korean and Russian navigation experts and researchers, helicopter pilots and engineers --- boarded the Araon prior to taking to the seas on Tuesday.