North Korea Pulls Capsized Warship Upright After Botched Launch, Report Says
North Korea appears to have returned to an upright position its stricken Choe Hyun Class destroyer that partially capsized during a botched launching ceremony, US researchers said on Wednesday.
Leader Kim Jong Un, who witnessed the failed launch of the 5,000-ton warship, said the accident damaged the country's dignity and vowed to punish those found responsible.
Commercial satellite imagery from June 2 showed the destroyer upright for the first time since the May 21 accident, the 38 North program, which studies the nuclear-armed North, said in a report.
Since the accident, North Korea has said it detained several officials, and Kim ordered the ship restored before a ruling party meeting this month.
"Commercial satellite imagery shows workers at the port in Chongjin have taken a significant step towards that goal," 38 North said in its report.
Workers were observed pulling tethers, and possibly using barrage balloons, in a manual effort to right the ship, it added. The imagery shows the vessel's bow still on land, with possible damage to its sonar section.
"To repair this, the ship will need to be moved out of the water to either a large floating drydock or graving dock once afloat," 38 North said. "However, Chongjin's shipyard does not offer this infrastructure."
The east coast shipyard has turned out primarily cargo and fishing vessels and lacks significant expertise in launching large warships such as the new destroyer, other military experts have said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
North Korea internet hit by a major outage, analyst says
North Korea's internet is experiencing a major outage on Saturday, said a UK-based researcher, adding that the cause may be internal rather than a cyberattack. North Korea's main news websites and its Foreign Ministry internet site were inaccessible on Saturday morning, according to checks by Reuters. 'A major outage is currently occurring on North Korea's internet — affecting all routes whether they come in via China or Russia,' said Junade Ali, a UK-based researcher who monitors the North Korean internet. North Korea's entire internet infrastructure is not showing up on systems that can monitor internet activities, he said. 'Hard to say if this is intentional or accidental — but seems like this is internal rather than an attack,' he said. Officials at South Korea's police cyber terror response center, which monitors North Korea's cyber activities, could not be reached for comment.
Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Japan says ‘progress' but no ‘agreement yet' in US tariff talks
Japan said Saturday it was making 'progress' in talks aimed at easing US President Donald Trump's tariffs but cautioned that the two sides have not found 'a point of agreement yet.' Japan, a key US ally and its biggest investor, is subject to the same 10 percent baseline tariffs imposed on most nations, plus steeper levies on cars, steel and aluminum. Trump also announced an additional 24 percent 'reciprocal' tariff on Japan in early April, but later paused it along with similar measures on other countries until early July. Japan wants all levies announced by Trump lifted. During a fifth round of talks, 'we further made progress toward an agreement,' Ryosei Akazawa, Tokyo's trade envoy, told Japanese reporters in Washington. But, he added: 'We've not been able to find a point of agreement yet.' Akazawa said Tokyo was hoping to seal a deal 'as soon as possible.' However, talks may still be ongoing when a summit of the Group of Seven wealthy nations starts on June 15. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Trump are reportedly planning to hold bilateral talks around the time of the G7 summit in Canada. Washington's 25-percent auto tariffs are particularly painful for Tokyo, with roughly eight percent of all Japanese jobs tied to the sector. Japan's economy, the world's fourth largest, contracted 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2025, adding to pressure on the unpopular Ishiba ahead of upper house elections expected in July.
Arab News
8 hours ago
- Arab News
Pentagon watchdog investigates if staffers were asked to delete Hegseth's Signal messages
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon's watchdog is looking into whether any of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's aides were asked to delete Signal messages that may have shared sensitive military information with a reporter, according to two people familiar with the investigation and documents reviewed by The Associated Press. The inspector general's request focuses on how information about the March 15 airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen was shared on the messaging app. This comes as Hegseth is scheduled to testify before Congress next week for the first time since his confirmation hearing. He is likely to face questions under oath not only about his handling of sensitive information but also the wider turmoil at the Pentagon following the departures of several senior aides and an internal investigation over information leaks. Hegseth already has faced questions over the installation of an unsecured Internet line in his office that bypassed the Pentagon's security protocols and revelations that he shared details about the military strikes in multiple Signal chats. One of the chats included his wife and brother, while the other included President Donald Trump's top national security officials and inadvertently included The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson had no comment Friday, citing the pending investigation. The inspector general's office would not discuss the details of the investigation but said that when the report is complete, their office will release unclassified portions of it to the public. Besides finding out whether anyone was asked to delete Signal messages, the inspector general also is asking some past and current staffers who were with Hegseth on the day of the strikes who posted the information and who had access to his phone, according to the two people familiar with the investigation and the documents reviewed by the AP. The people were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Democratic lawmakers and a small number of Republicans have said that the information Hegseth posted to the Signal chats before the military jets had reached their targets could have put those pilots' lives at risk and that for any lower-ranking members of the military it would have led to their firing. Hegseth has said none of the information was classified. Multiple current and former military officials have said there is no way details with that specificity, especially before a strike took place, would have been OK to share on an unsecured device. 'I said repeatedly, nobody is texting war plans,' Hegseth told Fox News Channel in April after reporting emerged about the chat that included his family members. 'I look at war plans every day. What was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations and other things. That's what I've said from the beginning.' Trump has made clear that Hegseth continues to have his support, saying during a Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia that the defense secretary 'went through a lot' but 'he's doing really well.' Hegseth has limited his public engagements with the press since the Signal controversy. He has yet to hold a Pentagon press briefing, and his spokesman has briefed reporters there only once. The inspector general is investigating Hegseth at the request of the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, and the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island. Signal is a publicly available app that provides encrypted communications, but it can be hacked and is not approved for carrying classified information. On March 14, one day before the strikes against the Houthis, the Defense Department cautioned personnel about the vulnerability of the app. Trump has said his administration targeted the Houthis over their 'unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence and terrorism.' He has noted the disruption Houthi attacks caused through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, key waterways for energy and cargo shipments between Asia and Europe through Egypt's Suez Canal. The Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, between November 2023 until January this year. Their leadership described the attacks as aimed at ending the Israeli war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
