North Korean warship tough to salvage after launch failure, analysts say
Leader Kim Jong Un called the launch a ‘criminal act’ and state media said those responsible will be arrested.
A newly built North Korean destroyer that was damaged during a launch attempt this week may have suffered irreparable harm, analysts said, as the communist nation’s authorities moved to arrest those responsible.
According to a Thursday report from the Beyond Parallel project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, the ship “may ultimately prove to be a complete loss.”
The Washington-based think tank said the launch failure is “an embarrassment to (leader) Kim Jong Un and North Korea’s Korean People’s Navy,” and would disrupt Kim’s plans to turn the navy from a coastal defense force to a blue-water one, capable of “strategic offensive operations.”
The attempted launch of North Korea’s second Choe Hyon-class guided missile destroyer went awry at the Hambuk (Chongjin) Shipyard on Wednesday. The 5,000 ton warship tipped sideways, leaving one side of its hull submerged.
Kim called it a “grave and unacceptable accident” and a “serious criminal act,” the state-run news agency reported Thursday.
CSIS said the vessel’s stern appears to have swung into the harbor after wheeled bogies supporting the destroyer’s frame reportedly slid off their tracks, while the bow remained stuck on the shipyard’s side slipway.
Satellite imagery shows the warship now covered in blue tarpaulins and surrounded by crane barges and support vessels, with multiple cranes stationed onshore.
