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4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Korean Frigate Now Floating Upright After Partially Capsizing During Disastrous Launch
The North Korean frigate that rolled over and was partially submerged during its botched launch ceremony last month is now floating on its own, a new satellite image shows. It is the latest sign of progress after a mishap that embarrassed North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who attended the ceremony. This roughly fits in with North Korea's initial estimate that it would take '10-odd days to restore the warship's side.' 'Kim Jong Un's instructions to restore' the unnamed Choi-Hyun class ship ''before the end of June have been met with skepticism,' 38 North, a website devoted to the analysis of North Korea, noted on Thursday. 'Commercial satellite imagery shows workers at the port in Chongjin have taken a significant step towards that goal.' In the new image, captured by Planet Labs, the vessel can be seen moored in the middle of O-Hang harbor, away from the dock where rolled into the water on May 21. There are two smaller vessels just off its starboard side and several more a bit further away on the port side. From the quality of the image, it is difficult to determine the level of damage the ship incurred after being partially underwater for more than two weeks. The ship was turned upright earlier this week, which you can read more about in our report here. The image shows that North Korea 'has successfully completed initial salvage operations,' according to the latest analysis by Beyond Parallel, a project within the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). 'As best can be presently determined, the vessel may be listing slightly to port, numerous small marine salvage balloons are visible alongside and aboard the vessel, and what appears to be a large lift bag or temporary ramp is visible on the slide slipway,' Beyond Parallel posited. 'The slight listing and presence of the balloons suggest that the salvage operation is not complete, with continued pumping, stabilization, and refurbishment operations remaining. It remains unclear whether the vessel will remain at the Hambuk Shipyard at Chongjin or be moved to another shipyard for this work, fitting-out, and subsequent commissioning.' Beyond Parallel could not ascertain from the image how badly the ship was damaged. 'Those are great questions, but not ones we can answer right now with the limited resolution of the image,' Jennifer Jun, Associate Fellow for Imagery Analysis at CSIS told us. 'We'll continue to monitor for better collects in the coming days.' At a press conference on Thursday, a spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said that additional repair work on the ship is in progress. However, he did not elaborate on whether Kim's demand that the frigate be restored by the time the next Party Central Committee meeting is held later this month will be met. This goal is outright questionable, if not impossible to meet. 'Further analysis is needed, such as whether a change has occurred in the warship's keel,' according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency. 'The North Korean warship inclined at the Chongjin port returned to an upright position earlier this week and additional (restoration) efforts are believed to be in progress,' Col. Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told a regular press briefing,' Yonhap reported. 'Both South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities are closely monitoring activities at the Chongjin port and the nearby area.' The vessel, which has an estimated displacement of 5,000 tons, is the second in its Choi Hyun class, following the Choi Hyon. That ship was officially unveiled in April. You can read all about the heavily armed class of frigates in our previous detailed analysis and follow-up report. Earlier this week, a satellite image showed that second vessel finally upright, but still at the dock and covered in blue tarps. You can catch up with our story about that here. As we noted in that story, an analysis by 38 North showed the efforts North Korea was taking to right the vessel. This is quite incredible speed. The image is partially obscured by cloud, but the capsized North Korean warship is now upright again. What makes it even more impressive is they apparently did it all manually. : Airbus Space and Defence/38 North, June — Martyn Williams (@ 2025-06-03T18:28:44.771Z 38 North suggested that the launch mechanism may have become stuck in the ship's bow, pinning it onto the land while the stern slipped into the water, after which the boat overturned. In the May 29 imagery, there appeared to be damage around the bow section. That is in stark contrast to North Korea's initial claim that the vessel was unharmed, a dubious, if not implausible assertion. In our previous report, we noted that there is not a dry dock that the vessel could be moved into readily at Chongjin if major repair work is required. However, now that the ship is floating, it could be easier to take it to a facility that can fix major hull damage. Contact the author: howard@
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Partially Sunk North Korean Frigate Recovery Effort Seen Underway In Satellite Image
A day after an embarrassing mishap during a launch ceremony attended by dictator Kim Jong Un, North Korean authorities are trying to right the 5,000-ton frigate. The warship rolled over and partially submerged after a premature slide into the water at the Chongjin Shipyard. You can read more about the incident that Kim called 'a criminal act' in our initial coverage here. New satellite imagery obtained by The War Zone shows the unnamed vessel, the second in the Choi Hyun class of frigates, still covered with blue tarps, but now there are two steel cables connecting it to a shipyard dock. 'The cables are likely for temporary mooring, tensioning, and stabilizing in order to prevent further movement or rotation and ensure structural safety.' Jennifer Jun, Associate Fellow for Imagery Analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) told us. 'North Korea mentioned that they need to pump up seawater from the flooded chamber, which will change the balance of the vessel as well and requires some sort of stabilizing support. You can read all about the heavily armed class of frigates in our previous detailed analysis and follow-up report. 'Experts estimated that it will take two or three days to keep the balance of the warship by pumping up the seawater from the flooded chamber and making the bow leave the slipway and 10-odd days to restore the warship's side,' the official North Korean KCNA News Agency reported on Friday. North Korean officials also expressed optimism about the ship's condition. 'Detailed underwater and internal inspection of the warship confirmed that, unlike the initial announcement, there were no holes made at the warship's bottom, the hull starboard was scratched and a certain amount of seawater flowed into the stern section through the rescue channel,' the officials claimed. 'The extent of damage to the warship is not serious and the result of the flooding process immediately after the accident is only information necessary to take practical rehabilitation measures. The above-said data have no connection with the cause of the accident and the identification of its responsibility.' Kim Jong Un's fury inducing crippled in botched sideways launch destroyer spotted TODAY under blue tarps 2nd Choe Hyon-class North Korea destroyer is sunk, leaning on her starboard side, bow over slipway. Wonder why tarps also over slipway. Hiding pieces or what? — Tom Bike (@tom_bike) May 22, 2025 The War Zone cannot independently verify North Korea's claims about the ship's condition, though it is not surprising that they would try to downplay the damage. A Washington-based think tank that closely follows North Korean shipbuilding questioned Pyongyang's stated timeline for recovery. While 'too early to say definitively without being on the ground…I do have some skepticism about the 10-day period estimate, given that the vessel is heavily tilted and partially submerged,' Jennifer Jun, an Associate Fellow for Imagery Analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told us. 'We also know that the vessel has been partially flooded, and the slipway infrastructure was likely damaged. Even if North Korea manages to right the vessel within the '10-odd days,' restoring its original capabilities will almost certainly take longer. I'd also be remiss not to mention that given the political stakes, those responsible for reporting this to Kim have strong incentives to downplay the extent of the damage.' As we noted in our previous coverage, the accident unfolded as the frigate was side-launched from its quay, in a new development for North Korea, which has previously used slipways to put large naval vessels into the water stern-first. Beyond Parallel, a project within CSIS, offered a detailed analysis of what could have happened, based on satellite imagery collected May 22. You can read more about that here. Jun on Friday told us that the new imagery does not change CSIS's assessment of what caused the ship to capsize. 'The new images from Maxar and Planet from today do not change our analysis at this point,' she explained. 'We see the recovery operation still underway, with more (small) support vessels employed to support it. The stern is still in the water and the vessel does not seem to have moved since yesterday's image.' In addition to downplaying the extent of the damage, North Korean officials also said an investigation was underway into what happened. 'The Party Central Military Commission instructed the investigation group to investigate and expose the cause of the accident which should never occur and could not be tolerated and those responsible for it,' KCNA News Agency reported on Friday. 'No matter how good the state of the warship is, the fact that the accident is an unpardonable criminal act remains unchanged, and those responsible for it can never evade their responsibility for the crime. Regarding this accident as a serious matter is not because of the damage to the warship or economic loss. The aim of doing so is to deal a telling blow to incautiousness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricist attitude prevailing in any field and to sound an alarm bell.' As part of the investigation, Hong Kil Ho, manager of the Chongjin Shipyard, 'was summoned to the law-enforcement organ on May 22.' "Hong Kil Ho, manager of the Chongjin Shipyard, was summoned to the law-enforcement organ on May 22."I would very much not want to be Hong Kil Ho right now. — Dr. Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) May 22, 2025 After the incident, North Korea made the highly unusual move of announcing what happened, including comments from Kim, in an apparent effort to control the narrative. 'Kim Jong Un made [a] stern assessment, saying that it was a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility … and could not be tolerated,' KCNA reported yesterday. Kim said that the officials found responsible would be 'dealt with at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee' in June. This is a high-level meeting of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party. At the same time, Kim called for the frigate to be restored before next month's meeting. As with the North Korean assessment about the timeline for the ship's recovery, that claim is extremely dubious given that repairs are likely to be extensive. With the ready availability of satellite imagery, it will be hard for North Korea to hide the material state of the vessel, as well as the progress of the recovery and restoration efforts, even with the bizarre attempt to use blue tarps to cover it up. We will continue to keep a close eye on the developments. Contact the author: howard@
