Kim Jong Un is not a happy man. Only a month after he unveiled North Korea’s first 5,000-ton destroyer, another similar warship was seriously damaged as it was launched yesterday.
North Korean state media issued an unusually lengthy report following the destroyer’s failed launch, mentioning how the ship’s hull had been damaged, the ‘launch slide of the stern detached’, and damage to the warship’s bottom had ‘destroyed the [vessel’s] balance’. The exact causes of the accident remain unknown, but the warship would have required expertise to launch successfully.
Some of the engineers and scientists involved in the crash will – at the bare minimum – be out of work soon
In his response, Kim Jong Un lambasted the incident as a ‘criminal act caused by absolute carelessness [and] irresponsibility’ of ‘relevant officials’, whom he vowed to hold accountable for their crimes. Kim then set a deadline of June for the warship to be repaired. Some of the engineers and scientists involved, whether from the North Korean Munitions Industry Department or the Mechanical Institute of the State Academy of Sciences, will – at the bare minimum – be out of work soon.
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