A major accident occurred during the launching ceremony of a newly built 5,000-ton destroyer at the Chongjin Shipyard in North Korea on the 21st. Kim Jong-un attended the launching ceremony and witnessed the accident. The accident took place in the eastern port city of Chongjin. A newly built 5,000-ton destroyer was about to be launched, but its stern slid in front of the bow, causing structural damage and preventing the ship from completely leaving the slipway.
It is reported that during the launching process, due to inexperienced command and careless operation, the parallelism of the chassis movement could not be ensured. As a result, the launching slide at the stern part disengaged and ran aground first, and the bottom of the ship was punctured in some sections, causing the ship to lose balance, and the bow part failed to disengage from the slipway.
Kim Jong-un, after watching the whole process of the accident, severely criticized that this accident was completely caused by carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism; it is a serious accident and criminal act that should not have happened and is unacceptable, emphasizing that this has gone beyond the limit of tolerance. Kim Jong-un instructed to set up an investigation team to investigate the cause of the accident.
This destroyer was originally going to be an important addition to the North Korean military's capabilities. It was supposed to be the second ship of this model, marking an ambitious step forward in North Korea's warship construction. However, the failure of this launch has drawn internal criticism from the North Korean top leadership. Against the background of increasingly tense relations with regional powers, North Korea has recently stepped up its naval development and introduced new military hardware.
Kim Jong-un emphasized that "repairing the destroyer as soon as possible is a political issue directly related to the country's authority, not merely a matter of business." He demanded that a case be filed to investigate this serious and irresponsible mistake and that the repair work be completed "unconditionally" before the plenary session next month.
