North Korean warship tough to salvage after launch failure, analysts say

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.

‘Hasty and flawed launch’


North Korea acknowledged the launch failure, attributing it to “inexperienced command and operational carelessness.” The Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, reported that holes in parts of the warship’s bottom disrupted its balance, suggesting a possible hull breach during the failed launch.


Outside military experts raised doubts about the vessel’s survivability. Moon Keun-sik, a former South Korean submarine captain and visiting professor at Hanyang University in Seoul, told Radio Free Asia that the destroyer appeared to have fully capsized. He said the severe tilt likely indicates a significant hull breach, possibly allowing seawater to reach inside and disable the engine.


While the side-launch method that was used on Wednesday is not technically demanding, Moon said that North Korea’s rush to complete the launch may have compromised safety. He said that repairs could take longer than Pyongyang has claimed.


“The damage to the rear could be extensive,” Moon said. “If saltwater entered the engine compartment, the consequences could be severe. It seems the regime was under pressure to showcase its naval capabilities and cooperation with Russia, which likely led to a hasty and ultimately flawed launch.”

Retired U.S. Navy Capt. James Fanell, who previously served as the chief of intelligence for the U.S. 7th Fleet and Pacific Fleet, told RFA that the incident may reflect internal pressures within North Korea’s naval development program.


“It is reported the North Korean Navy launched their first new destroyer using the floating dry-dock method, which worked well,” he said. “Why Hambuk Shipyard was used to launch the second destroyer via the side-way gravitational method could be a reflection of the pressure Kim Jong Un has put on the North Korean [military] to more rapidly grow the size of the North Korean Navy.”


In response to the failure, Kim Jong Un issued harsh criticism, targeting multiple institutions, including the Munitions Industry Department, the State Academy of Sciences, Kim Chaek University of Technology, and the Central Ship Design Institute, North Korean state media reported.


North Korea now says no holes in ship’s bottom


While North Korea has shown uncharacteristic candor in reporting the mishap at all, its state media appeared to downplay the extent of the damage. After initially acknowledging a hull breach, KCNA said Friday that inspections found “no holes in the ship’s bottom” and only limited seawater intrusion through an aft compartment.


The North Korean government estimated that it would take two to three days to drain the flooded compartments and separate the bow from the slipway to restore balance to the warship. Repairing the starboard hull would then require approximately 10 additional days.

On Thursday, an official at South Korea’s Ministry of Unification told reporters in Seoul that Kim’s reported instruction to repair the destroyer before a June plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party suggests the damage may not be irrecoverable.


Experts remain unconvinced. The future of the vessel — and of Kim’s timeline for transforming the navy into a blue-water force —now appears uncertain.


Shipyard manager questioned


KCNA reported on Friday that an official investigation team composed of government agencies and technical experts has begun a full-scale probe into the launch failure.


KCNA said that based on preliminary findings, the Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Military Commission has instructed legal authorities to arrest individuals deemed clearly responsible for the incident. The Chongjin shipyard’s general manager, Hong Gil-ho, was summoned for questioning on Thursday, it said.

North Korean warship tough to salvage after launch failure, analysts say – Radio Free Asia

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Fears of a purge in shipyard town after North Korea destroyer launch goes wrong

The mood in the North Korean port city where a warship launch went badly wrong last week is grim, local residents say, as authorities make arrests and officials scramble to find ways to salvage the 5,000-ton vessel.


North Korean state media has reported that several senior officials have been detained, including Hong Kil Ho, the manager of the Chongjin Shipyard, and Ri Hyong Son, a senior military industry official in the ruling Workers’ Party.


The May 21 launch was meant to be a signature event for supreme leader Kim Jong Un, signaling North Korea progress toward building a blue water navy.


He was presiding over the launch when the ship tipped sideways after an attempted “side launch” from the dock side that left one side of the hull submerged. Just a day later, state media reported his angry reaction: calling it a “grave and unacceptable accident” and a “serious criminal act.”


“People are stunned that the government acknowledged the failure so openly,” a resident of North Hamgyong province, where Chongjin is located, told RFA. Like all the sources in this story, the resident spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.


A source from Chongjin said: “The whole city feels like it’s in mourning.”

North Korea’s opaque and often brutal political system only adds to the tension. Residents now fear that those involved—engineers, managers, and possibly even their families—may face severe punishment.


“People worry that this will lead to a purge,” a second source from North Hamgyong province said. “Kim takes failure personally, especially when it undermines his image.”


Reasons for failure


The shipyard was once known for building ships like the 9,500-ton Mangyongbong-92, a cargo and passenger ferry which launched in 1971. But it has not launched large-scale vessels like that in decades, according to local sources. During Kim Jong Un’s rule, the yard had pivoted toward production of military assets like submarines and torpedo craft.


“The shipyard used to be capable of building cargo ships before economic collapse in 1990s,” the Chongjin resident said. “But after the economic collapse, they haven’t built larger ships. With the retirement of older engineers, additionally the new generation lacks the experience for this kind of operation.”

Following the accident, the damaged warship was covered with blue tarpaulin, visible in satellite images. The residents say attempts to recover the vessel have been slow, hindered by poor infrastructure and a lack of proper equipment.


“There are no large cranes at the shipyard that can lift a vessel of this size,” the first source from North Hamgyong said. “They might use sea cranes, but the approach route through sea to the dock is too narrow and shallow for those to operate easily.”


“It is possible to use crane ships (floating cranes), but the shipyard dock where the vessel has capsized is too narrow, making it extremely difficult to deploy multiple crane ships,” the source added. “Another problem is that the dock is not directly connected to open waters — it lies deep inland and can only be accessed through a narrow channel, which makes it challenging to bring in large crane ships to the site."


Using balloons?


Satellite imagery appears to show that North Korea is attempting to raise the destroyer into an upright position by attaching numerous balloons to it, according to a U.S. expert.


Decker Eveleth, an imagery analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., likened it to a scene from a popular animated movie.


“North Korea appears to be attempting to lift up their destroyer with methods inspired by Pixar’s hit 2009 film Up. Note the numerous balloons in the air above the destroyer,” he wrote in a post on X featuring a May 25 satellite image from Maxar.


In “Up,” an elderly man ties vast numbers of balloons to his house to fly it to a South American wilderness.

Fears of a purge in shipyard town after North Korea destroyer launch goes wrong – Radio Free Asia

That is a lot of tarpaulin.

They will be able to refloat that boat on the sea of blood Kim Jong Un will spill over this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by misskit

North Korea’s opaque and often brutal political system only adds to the tension. Residents now fear that those involved—engineers, managers, and possibly even their families—may face severe punishment.

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Gets more like the US every day.

Well I don't know what's more of a surprise, that they got the thing back upright or that fat boy is suddenly looking so dapper and jovial.

Much more like a Bond villain now.

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In Northern Ireland thay are saying that North Korea should open a museum and name a hotel after the ship.