SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea test-fired a barrage of cruise missiles Wednesday, the same day a destroyer launch went badly wrong, leaving state leader Kim Jong-un fuming, it was revealed Thursday.
Mr. Kim personally attended the botched launch, where a new guided-missile destroyer was half-capsized and likely suffered damage to the hull.
“It was a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism which is out of the bounds of possibility and could not be tolerated,” Mr. Kim fumed.
It is not known if the missile barrage and ship launch incidents are linked.
While the launch of multiple cruise missiles into the Sea of Japan is standard fare for North Korea, naval upgrades are a much newer priority for Pyongyang’s armed forces.
Experts say the new destroyers may be the first beneficiaries of Moscow’s technical assistance in return for North Korea’s troop dispatch to the Russia-Ukraine war — possibly explaining Mr. Kim’s fury.
Last month, North Korea launched its first-ever guided-missile destroyer. On Wednesday, a vessel believed to be the second ship in the class — she is the same tonnage as the first, 5,000 tons — was launched from a yard in the city of Chongjin, on the country’s east coast.
Unlike last month’s successful launch from a yard in Nampo, on the west coast, the second launch went badly wrong.
It appeared that a sideways launch was attempted, according to North Korean state media.
As the vessel descended the slipway, her stern entered the water while her bow remained in situ, causing significant damage — likely shearing — to the hull.
North Korean state media, monitored in Seoul, detailed Mr. Kim’s outburst in response to the snafu.
He delivered the stern assessment that the screw up “could not be tolerated” and solemnly warned five different state institutes of their responsibility. He demanded the “immediate restoration” of the warship by late June, when a party plenary is scheduled.
That may be a tall order. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs told a press briefing Thursday that the launch had been monitored by South Korea and U.S. intelligence, and that the stricken destroyer is lying on her beam, half capsized.
The development comes amid a series of targeted capability upgrades to different components of North Korea’s military machine.
Pyongyang’s well-publicized weapons of mass destruction programs are prioritized in national research, development and budget spending. The country has detonated six nuclear devices, and tests make clear that South Korea, Japan and the U.S. are all within range of its missiles.
Pyongyang fields a million-strong army, but many soldiers are believed to be ill-fed, ill-trained, tactically backward and mostly used as state labor. However, approximately 200,000 troops are considered elite.
An estimated 13,000 men from the latter force have earned both millennial combat experience and grudging respect from their Ukrainian opponents, fighting as shock troops for the Kremlin in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.
They are assessed to have suffered over 4,000 casualties, including 600 dead, necessitating reinforcement. Last month, news media in Kiev reported that it was uncertain North Korean troops would fight in Ukraine proper after Russia recaptured Kursk.
North Korea’s air force is vastly overmatched by South Korean and U.S. competitors. Its navy is a mixed bag.
Many vessels are small and old-fashioned, but they performed competently in littoral skirmishes against South Korea’s high-tech patrol boats in the Yellow Sea between 1999 and 2010.
Also in 2010, a South Korean corvette was sunk by what Seoul claims was a North Korean mini-submarine in a surprise attack.
Pyongyang is currently prioritizing naval upgrades. It has released images of what it says is a nuclear-powered submarine under construction, and on April 25, launched the 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon in Nampo.
The Choe Hyon is believed to be the largest warship North Korea has produced and will serve as “the lead vessel of the Korean People’s Navy’s first class of destroyers,” according to the think tank CSIS Korea Chair.
Choe Hyon has impressed naval analysts with the weight and variety of its armaments, compared to Western warships of similar tonnage.
Ever since North Korean troops were spotted in Russia last year, pundits have been on a keen lookout for Russian technical assistance to their ally as repayment for troop and ammunition supply. Some analyses suggest Russia has assisted North Korea with satellite and ballistic missiles, but none are confirmed.
Expert photo analyses of the Choe Hyon suggest it benefited from Moscow’s input.
“North Korea’s new destroyer has a close-in weapons system (CIWS) that looks consistent with Russia’s Pantsir-M,” Joseph Dempsey, a research analyst with think tank the International Institute of Strategic Studies, wrote on X, referencing a Russian air-defense system. “This may represent the first open-source evidence of Russian military transfers North Korea in return for their support of the Ukraine war.”
Five days after her launch, per images released in state media, the Choe Hyon conducted multiple weapons tests.
