The Navy provided 10,000 facial masks and 2,000 units of hand sanitizers to the Philippines on Tuesday to express thanks to the country for fighting alongside South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, it said.

The Navy's task group on an annual cruise training delivered the antivirus items to the Southeast Asian country's Conrado Yap ship in waters near Manila, according to the military.

The Filipino patrol ship was named after a late Army captain who was killed during the war. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the war's outbreak.

After the delivery, the navies of the two countries conducted joint maritime drills, it said.

The Navy's task group, consisting of the 4,400-ton destroyer Kang Gam-chan and the 10,000-ton logistics support ship Soyang, set sail for a 72-day journey from the southern island of Jeju last month with 540 sailors, including 147 naval cadets, aboard.

The group originally planned to make its first call in Manila, but it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"When the Korean War broke out, the Philippines was the first among Asian countries to send ground forces to support us. Blooming young people were sacrificed while fighting to protect the freedom of South Korea," R. Adm. Kim Gyeong-cheol, chief of the group, said, vowing to forever remember their sacrifice. (Yonhap)