North Korea attempted to launch a new 5,000-ton naval destroyer on Wednesday, but the ship suffered a “major accident,” according to state media outlet KCNA, which reports the hull has been damaged. And North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is not happy about it, to say the least.
KCNA reports that Kim called the incident a “serious accident and criminal act caused by sheer carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism which should never occur and could not be tolerated.”
North Korea didn’t release photos of the warship or the accident, but South Korean military sources who spoke with that country’s Yonhap news outlet said that it appeared the ship “remains partially capsized on the sea.”
“Due to inexperienced command and operational carelessness in the course of the launch, the launch slide of the stern departed first and stranded as the bogie failed to move in parallel, holes made at some sections of the warship’s bottom disrupted its balance, and the bow failed to leave the slipway, leading to a serious accident,” KCNA said.
As the Wall Street Journal notes, much of North Korea’s naval fleet dates to the era of the Soviet Union, which ceased to exist in 1991. The North Korean military is trying to modernize, successfully launching the Choe Hyon class of guided missile destroyers in April. But Wednesday’s failure will be a setback both practically and for morale in a country where military propaganda is vital to compensate for a lack of material progress.
The state media outlet placed blame for Wednesday’s ship mishap on a number of different agencies, including the Munitions Industry Department of the WPK Central Committee, the Mechanical Institute of the State Academy of Sciences, and the Central Ship Design Institute. KCNA also blamed Kim Chaek University of Technology in Pyongyang, which is where many of North Korea’s nuclear scientists are trained.
North Korea is a nuclear power, and the 41-year-old dictator of the country was said to have a strangely warm relationship to President Donald Trump during the American leader’s first term. Trump apparently empathized with Kim because the North Korean dictator inherited his role at 27 years old, the same age Trump went off on his own after inheriting millions from his own father.
But North Korea hasn’t been in the headlines here in the U.S. nearly as much as during Trump’s first term, perhaps because the president is no longer antagonizing Kim with taunts of “little rocket man” and is instead focused on the dismantling of the American government. Trump has been pushing to get his tax bill through Congress, which passed the House on Thursday morning with a narrow vote of 215-214 and is poised to be a huge handout to the wealthiest Americans while slashing funding for Medicaid and food stamps.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reports that North Korea launched several cruise missiles into the East Sea (also known as the Sea of Japan) on Thursday morning after the failed ship launch, according to Yonhap. It was the first major missile test since May 8.
