A new North Korean warship was damaged in a “serious accident” during a launch ceremony attended by leader Kim Jong Un, state media reported Thursday in a rare admission of failure by the secretive nuclear-armed state.
The 5,000-ton destroyer slid off a flatcar because of “inexperienced command and operational carelessness in the course of the launch,” according to the Korean Central News Agency, crushing parts of the bottom of the ship.
Lee Sung-joon, spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that U.S. and South Korean intelligence authorities had been monitoring the failed launch and that the ship was “lying on its side in the sea.”
South Korea also said Thursday that North Korea had fired multiple unidentified cruise missiles and that U.S. and South Korean intelligence authorities were analyzing the details.
The ship accident Wednesday at the northeastern port of Chongjin is a blow to Kim, who has stressed the importance of such destroyers for advancing North Korea’s military capabilities.
Kim described the incident as a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness” that “could not be tolerated,” KCNA said.
He censured the officials involved in the accident, which he said “brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse,” and said the ship should be restored before next month’s plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party.
The North Korean report did not say whether there were any casualties.
South Korea’s Lee said the damaged ship was believed to have capabilities similar to those of North Korea’s first destroyer, the Choe Hyon-ho, which was unveiled late last month in what Kim called a “breakthrough” in modernizing his naval forces. North Korean state media reported that Kim had supervised tests of the destroyer’s supersonic and strategic cruise missiles, anti-aircraft missile, automatic guns and electronic jamming guns.
Kim said that the destroyer would be deployed early next year and that his next goal in naval modernization was to acquire a nuclear-powered submarine.
Experts say that although North Korea’s naval forces still lag behind those of South Korea, which has 12 destroyers, the new destroyer is considered a serious threat. It is believed to have been built with assistance from Russia, where North Korea has been sending troops and weapons to support its war against Ukraine.
The U.S.-based website 38 North said last week that North Korea was preparing to launch the second destroyer and that it was “likely be side-launched from the quay, a method not previously observed in North Korea.”
“The use of this launch method could be one of necessity, as the quay where the ship is being built does not have an incline,” it said in a report.
Tensions have heightened on the Korean Peninsula in recent years as Kim accelerates weapons testing for his nuclear and missile programs in what he says is a response to intensifying military cooperation between the United States and its allies. North Korea views joint military exercises among the United States, South Korea and others as a rehearsal for invasion, which those nations deny.
While North Korea’s cruise missile launches on Thursday did not violate United Nations Security Council resolutions, which bar the North from testing ballistic missiles, experts say they are equally as deadly.
