North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un was reportedly left furious during a launch ceremony after a new naval destroyer capsized and sank right before his eyes.
According to Mail Online, the 5,000-ton vessel suffered severe damage after a failed launch attempt, leaving Kim visibly horrified as the incident unfolded.
He condemned the incident as a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness” that “could not be tolerated.”
According to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim has ordered the destroyer to be fully restored before a scheduled party meeting in June.
The outlet confirmed that a “serious accident occurred” during the ceremony on Wednesday.
In a statement, KCNA said: ‘Due to immature command and operational negligence, the parallel movement of the bogies could not be guaranteed, resulting in the launching sled in the stern detaching first and causing the ship to capsize.
‘The ship’s balance was destroyed due to a rupture in the hull in some sections, and the bow section was unable to detach from the keel.’
Kim was less than impressed by the blunder, saying: ‘This is a serious accident and criminal act that could not have happened and could not be tolerated due to pure carelessness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism,’ the agency reported.
He continued: ‘The urgent restoration of the destroyer is not a simple practical issue, but a political issue directly related to the authority of the country.’
‘It must be completed unconditionally before the June plenary session of the Central Committee of the Party’, he added.
The ship used for the recent launch ceremony appears to belong to the same class as the 5,000-ton destroyer Choi Hyun-ho, which North Korea unveiled last month.
Jo Chun Ryong, a secretary in the ruling Workers’ Party, stated that the vessel was armed with the “most powerful weapons” and constructed “within 400-odd days.”
