Little Rocket Man announces massive new hiring plan for North Korea's shipbuilding industry as hundreds of top positions are suddenly vacated
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t’wasn’t meant to be
We knew this was coming when news of the mishap hit the airwaves Thursday:
Kim Jong Un left fuming after North Korea's new destroyer damaged in failed launch
North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un was left fuming this week when he attended the botched launch of a new 5,000-ton naval destroyer.
The launch, at the northeastern port of Chongjin, was intended to tout the communist nation’s military advancement, but ended in embarrassment for Kim after the ship slid off a ramp and became stuck, state media reported.
The flatcar failed to move alongside the ship, throwing it off balance and crushing parts of the ship’s bottom, North Korean news agency KCNA reported. Its stern slid down the launch slipway, while its bow section failed to leave the ramp.
The total extent of the damage was unclear and it isn’t known if there were any injuries.
North Korea did not release photos from the scene, although satellite imagery released by South Korea on Thursday indicated that the ship was lying on its side in the water after the failed launch.
According to KCNA, Kim, who was present at the ceremony on Wednesday, blamed military officials, scientists and shipyard operators for a "serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism."
Kim warned that the errors caused by the "irresponsibility of the relevant officials" would need to be investigated at a ruling Workers’ Party meeting slated for late June.
…. Moon Keun-sik, a navy expert who teaches at Seoul’s Hanyang University … suspected that the incident likely happened because North Korean workers aren't yet familiar with such a large warship and had been rushed to put it in the water.
It was the second naval destroyer the secretive nation launched in a month after Kim attended the successful launch of another 5,000-ton destroyer from Nampo, a port on the west coast of North Korea. Kim later watched missiles fired from the ship, with experts saying that it appeared to have been built with Russian technology.
A report by the North Korea-focused 38 North website assessed last week that the destroyer in Chongjin was being prepared to be launched sideways from the quay, a method that has rarely been used in North Korea. The report said the destroyer launched in Nampo, in contrast, used a floating dry dock.
And sure enough: all you young, ambitious Hermit Kingdom engineers and dockyard workers, put down your slide rules, put aside your lunch boxes, and start polishing your resumes.
North Korea vows to arrest those responsible for failed ship launch
North Korea has begun steps to arrest and investigate those responsible for a failed launch of its second naval destroyer this week
It’s a good bet that everyone involved, however peripherally, with this fiasco will not live to regret it.
