According to state media reports, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reprimanded officials for a “serious accident and criminal act” that caused damage to a recently constructed warship.
The 5, 000-ton destroyer was damaged hull by a premature detachment of a transport cradle during a launch ceremony in Chongjin, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday, blaming the incident on “inexperienced command and operational carelessness.”
Kim made the “stern assessment” that the incident was the result of “absolute carelessness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism,” which “could not be tolerated,” according to the KCNA.
The ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s central committee met at the next meeting, and Kim “warned solemnly” and “censured them for the fault, as the KCNA claimed.
According to the KCNA, Kim ordered the warship to be fixed in time for a party’s central committee’s plenary meeting in June, describing the vessel’s restoration as “not merely a practical issue but a political issue directly related to the state’s authority.”
According to South Korea’s military, Pyongyang appeared to have partially capsized and failed to finish a side-launch of the ship.
Official incompetence is not uncommon in North Korea, where the Kim family’s status is almost entirely unrequited.
Kim attended the launch of a “new multipurpose destroyer” with “the most powerful weapons” on April 25th.
Kim praised the vessel as “indispensable for building up our capacity for stoutly defending our maritime sovereignty” and as an “important starting point of our journey toward building an advanced maritime power” in state media reports at the time.
Source: Aljazeera
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