The nation’s first ice-breaking vessel, the “Araon,” has succeeded in breaking through one-meter-thick ice in Antarctica during its inaugural trial Friday morning, Korean time.

The Araon traveled 600 meters at over five-point-five kilometers per hour while breaking through the sheets of ice.

The vessel's chief scientist Kim Dong-yeob said that the Araon's ice-breaking capacity was satisfactory and that the ship will test a number of different methods of breaking ice over the next two or three days.

A survey team that inspected a candidate site for a Korean science base in Cape Burks will also return to the Araon on Friday.