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By John Feng and Shane Croucher
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North Korea has said a second naval destroyer has been damaged in a botched launch to water, an embarrassment for leader Kim Jong Un, who oversaw the failure and scolded the officials responsible, according to state media.
"A serious accident occurred in the course of the launch of the destroyer," a report by state-run KCNA said, blaming "inexperienced command and operational carelessness" for the incident involving the 5,000-ton ship at Chongjin's Hambuk shipyard.
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Why It Matters
It is another blow for Kim as he tries to modernize North Korea's navy, part of a broader revamp of the armed forces. The North Korean navy is a modest fleet largely made up of aging warships and smaller fast attack craft.
Pyongyang is also pressing forward with its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
The U.S. and its South Korean and Japanese allies have responded by stepping up joint exercises simulating a North Korean attack—activities Pyongyang condemns as "provocations."
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What To Know
Kim made a "stern assessment, saying that it was a serious accident and criminal act caused by sheer carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism which should never occur and could not be tolerated," the KCNA report said.
The destroyer became unbalanced and was punctured in its bottom sections after a transport cradle on the stern section slid off first and became stuck, per the report.
The damaged vessel was likely in the same class as the country's first destroyer, unveiled April 25, which experts assessed as the North's largest and most advanced warship to date.
Kim called the first vessel, named Choe Hyon—a famed Korean guerrilla fighter during the Japanese colonial period—a significant asset for advancing his goal of expanding the military's operational range and nuclear strike capabilities.
Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday the damaged vessel was likely equipped with similar systems and remains toppled over in the sea.
What People Are Saying
"It's a shameful thing," said Moon Keun-sik, a navy expert who teaches at Seoul's Hanyang University, of the latest failed launch.
"But the reason why North Korea disclosed the incident is it wants to show it's speeding up the modernization of its navy forces and expresses its confidence that it can eventually build" a greater navy.
Moon suspected the incident likely happened because North Korean workers aren't yet familiar with such a large warship and were rushed to put it in the water.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
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