On the 21st local time, the launching ceremony of North Korea’s newly built 5000 ton destroyer was held at the Chongjin Shipyard. Kim Jong un, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Chairman of the State Council, attended the ceremony.
A serious accident occurred during the launch of the newly built destroyer. During the launching process of the destroyer, due to unskilled command and careless operation, the parallelism of the chassis movement was not guaranteed, resulting in the launching skateboard at the stern first detaching from the grounding, and some sections of the hull were perforated, causing the hull to become unbalanced. The bow part did not detach from the slipway.
Kim Jong un witnessed the entire process of the accident and criticized it as an intolerable major accident and criminal act due to negligence, irresponsibility, and lack of respect for scientific empiricism.
Kim Jong un said that this irresponsible and serious mistake will be investigated at the plenary session of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party next month.
Kim Jong un emphasized that “repairing the destroyer as soon as possible is a political issue directly related to national authority, rather than a purely operational issue.” He also demanded that the repair work be completed “unconditionally” before next month’s plenary session.
Kim Jong un instructed the establishment of an investigation team to investigate the cause of the accident. (Reporter Dong Haitao from CCTV)