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Telegraph
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
North Korea has lost its second proper warship, but it is still building a blue water navy
The Korean People's Navy, the navy of North Korea, has suffered a major blow as its second ever proper warship appears to have been wrecked on launching. Reports and satellite imagery show that the ship was launched sideways into the water, rather than bows or stern first down a conventional slipway or by flooding up a dry dock. Sideways launch involves supports all along the length of the ship sliding simultaneously down tilted tracks to deposit the ship in the water. According to North Korean state media the bow slides didn't move but the stern ones did, resulting in major damage to the ship. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who was watching the launch ceremony with his daughter, said the wreck was a 'criminal act' caused by carelessness and 'unscientific empiricism', which bodes ill for the people in charge. For most of its history the KPN has been a coastal navy, or more accurately two coastal navies: the geography of North Korea and the short range of its vessels meant that it was largely impossible to shift craft from coast to coast. Though the KPN has hundreds of vessels they are mostly small: torpedo and missile boats, midget submarines, amphibious hovercraft and such like. It has a few larger ships and submarines, mostly foreign built, but these are very old and unserviceable. In recent times, however, the KPN has aspired to greater things. In 2023 an old Romeo-class diesel sub was modified to carry nuclear ballistic missiles. This did not in any way create an equal of the serious deterrent submarines operated by the major nuclear powers, but it showed ambition. Last month the first of a new class of destroyers, the Choe Hyon, was launched. At around 4,000 tons this is significantly smaller than a British Type 45 destroyer (8,000 tons) or an American Arleigh Burke (9,000+ tons). However the Choe Hyon has phased array radar and vertical missile launch cells: it's potentially a proper modern blue-water warship. It can probably be armed with land-attack cruise missiles as well as anti-air and anti-ship ones, so in that respect at least it is more capable than a British destroyer (ours, shamefully, are 'fitted for but not with' launch cells for land-attack missiles). The ship which has just been wrecked on launch was the second of the Choe Hyon class. Kim has reportedly ordered that it be repaired 'unconditionally' before the June plenary meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee. As the ship is now lying on its side in the dock, probably with a broken back, that sounds like a tall order: the more so as the people running the dockyard are evidently not all that competent. So this is a big setback for the KPN: its second ever real warship has been wrecked. But it seems unlikely that Kim will give up on building a blue-water navy able to operate seriously away from his own coasts. With the Chinese navy also growing at an almost nightmarish rate, Western allies in the region won't find this a welcome development.
NHK
22-05-2025
- Politics
- NHK
South Korea military: North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles
South Korea's military says North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles toward the sea from the east coast of the Korean Peninsula on Thursday morning. The Joint Chiefs of Staff say North Korea fired the cruise missiles at around 9:00 a.m. from the Sondok area of South Hamgyong Province. The JCS did not provide further details, such as the distance they traveled or where they fell. North Korea has carried out a number of cruise missile launches in recent months. In January, North Korea said it test-fired a cruise missile, and it conducted a military exercise in February to launch another. In April, North Korea said it test-fired cruise missiles mounted on a recently launched destroyer. Defense experts say cruise missiles are difficult to intercept because they travel along oval trajectories at low altitudes for hours. Thursday's launches followed the North Korean state-media's announcement earlier in the day that there was a "serious" accident during the launch of a new destroyer on Wednesday. South Korean media quoted South Korean government officials as saying that the cruise missile launches could be intended as a demonstration of its ability to operate its missile forces reliably and also to deflect attention from Wednesday's failure.
