In our country, whose foreign trade is increasing rapidly and whose economic growth is based on export, need for the development of shipbuilding technology can hardly be overemphasized. Thus our government has long been promoting shipbuilding industry. As a result, Korea has built a total of 5.14 million tonnage as of March, 1981, its yearly income of foreign currency from selling ships reaching 1.8 billion dollars.

In celebration of this growth of our shipbuilding industry, the Ministry of Communications has decided to issue stamps depicting Korean-made ships five times this year. This is also hoped to effect diversification of our stamp material in such a way as to be palatable to philatelists at home and abroad. The following, issued on the occasion of the 5th Maritime Day, are the first two stamps in this series:
1.Oil Tanker.
This 260,000 dwt supertanker, built in 1976 by the Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., is the first VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) built in Korea. She is now one of the major ships in the Korean fleet of tankers, put in the oil route between Korea and the Middle East. 51.8m wide, 344.4m long and 26.5m high, the tanker has an area two times that of the soccer field of the Seoul Athletic Grounds. The amount of crude oil that she is capable of loading is 1.8 million bbls. As large as she is, she has only a small crew of 30 members, because of her complete automation system.