‘Significant Step': New Photos Reveal North Korean Warship Update
North Korea, increasingly allied with Russia and broadcasting its intensive military build-up, has swerved away from long-held policies of reconciliation with South Korea and adopted a more aggressive tone toward the U.S., a key ally for Seoul.
Pyongyang has forged ahead with its weapons development, including nuclear warheads, and pushed for a more formidable navy.
North Korea's attempt to launch a second Choe Hyon-class destroyer at its northeastern Chongjin port on May 21 ended in a "serious accident," North Korean state media reported at the time. The first of this new type of warship was successfully launched in April.
The second 5,000-ton warship was damaged "due to inexperienced command and operational carelessness," state media reported, an unusually candid public assessment for the secretive nation seeking to exude military strength. The country's supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, was present for the bungled launch.
"North Korea's failed ship launch was a huge embarrassment to Kim Jong Un, especially since it happened in front of his eyes," said Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution's Center for Asia Policy Studies.
Kim, who called the launch failure a "criminal act," ordered the warship to be restored. State media reported shortly after the incident that authorities had arrested four people over the botched launch.
It would take up to three days to pump seawater from flooded parts of the ship, and roughly 10 days to pull the ship upright, according to state media.
Satellite imagery published by the 38 North project, which focuses on North Korea and is run by the Washington, D.C.-based Stimson Center nonprofit, from Monday showed that the warship was upright for the first time in several weeks, the analysts said.
Personnel at the dock have taken a "significant step" toward restoring the vessel, they added.
The warship was significantly damaged," the U.K.-based Open Source Centre nonprofit said last month. The vessel "will not be entering service anytime soon and may ultimately prove to be a complete loss," experts with the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Beyond Parallel project said in late May.
North Korea launched the first of its Choe Hyon-class destroyers in late April at its Nampho shipyard southwest of Pyongyang, which analysts said was the largest warship the country had ever produced.
This new type of destroyer will be able to launch advanced weapons, including cruise and ballistic missiles, North Korea has said.
"Kim has taken a deep personal interest in promoting the country's ongoing naval modernization," Yeo told Newsweek. The failed launch at the Chongjin shipyard "not only undermined the narrative of North Korea's powerful naval build-up, but it also cast doubt on whether North Korea has the actual means and capabilities to build a new fleet of ships as quickly as it hopes."
North Korean state media, on May 23: "The accident is an unpardonable criminal act. Those responsible for it can never evade their responsibility for the crime."
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