Four North Korean officials arrested over failed warship launch in front of Kim Jong Un, face imminent execution
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
Why is Kim Jong Un so furious?
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
How did the launch go so wrong?
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
What could happen to the arrested officials?
FAQs
A North Korean warship launch went very wrong, and now high-ranking officials are paying the price. The destroyer tipped over and sank on its first trip, which made Kim Jong Un very angry.The failed warship launch that damaged a newly built destroyer led to the arrest of four North Korean officials. People see the disaster as a big step back for North Korea's plans to modernize its navy.The lives of those four North Korean officials detained for the disastrous destroyer launch are in grave danger.Days after the nameless 5,000-ton destroyer's disastrous launch, which caused the ship to capsize onto its side and damage its hull, the arrests were made.According to North Korean experts, Kim Jong Un could even kill four officials who were detained. "I would say there's a very good chance they'd be executed," stated Joseph S. Bermudez, a North Korean defense analyst at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, as quoted in a report by Business Insider.The rapidity with which state-run North Korean media reported on the incident that damaged its newest warship and identified the officials involved was one startling feature. The announcements' high level of publicity implies Kim is "very upset," Bermudez continued.Bermudez said the Choe Hyon-class destroyer advances Kim's goal of turning North Korea's coastal navy into a blue-water fleet. He called that project's setback a "slap in the face" for Kim.It is thought that the mechanism that rolled the ship into the water broke down, causing the aft portion of the ship to lie in the water and flood while the bow of the ship became stuck on the pier.The chief engineer of the shipyard, the head of the hull construction workshop, and a deputy manager for administrative affairs were all held directly responsible for the arrests, which were reported by state-run media.First on the list was Ri Hyong Son, who was also arrested while serving as the vice director of the Korean Workers' Party Central Committee's Munitions Industry Department.It was one of two next-generation Choe Hyon-class destroyers. Bermudez told BI that the eastern Chongjin Shipyard, which rarely builds large warships, built the second.North Korea tried a sideways launch instead of drydock or a slipway, which the workers may not have been used to with a larger vessel, he said.According to satellite photos taken on Monday, there was evidence of a dredging operation at the harbor entrance, and the ship's bow was still stuck on the pier.Exactly what will happen to the officials named is unknown. Although the legal system can impose a variety of penalties, "due process" is frequently a deterrent. North Korea put two unidentified nuclear power plant construction researchers to death in January for not finishing their project and raising the bar for technology. Their less experienced coworkers were taken to what is thought to be a political prison camp.Whatever the penalty, one thing is certain that the officials' families will also be impacted. According to the reasoning of the North Korean legal system, convictions are "because of a significant family flaw," which implies that the family must be dealt with for three generations.Experts believe it is very likely, particularly given Kim Jong Un's swift and public outrage.A botched sideways launch tilted and flooded the vessel, most likely due to inadequate preparation at an inexperienced shipyard.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
20 minutes ago
- India Today
No greater miscalculation: Kim Jong Un's sister on South Korea's peace offer
North Korea has no interest in any policy or proposals for reconciliation from South Korea, the powerful sister of its leader Kim Jong Un said on Monday in the first response to South Korean liberal President Lee Jae Myung's peace Yo Jong, who is a senior North Korean ruling party official and is believed to speak for the country's leader, said Lee's pledge of commitment to South Korea-US security alliance shows he is no different from his hostile South Korea expects to reverse all the consequences of (its actions) with a few sentimental words, there could be no greater miscalculation than that," Kim said in comments carried by official KCNA news agency. Lee, who took office on June 4 after winning a snap election called after the removal of hardline conservative Yoon Suk Yeol over a failed attempt at martial law, has vowed to improve ties with Pyongyang that had reached the worst level in gestures aimed at easing tensions, Lee suspended loudspeaker broadcasts blasting anti-North propaganda across the border and banned the flying of leaflets by activists that had angered the North Korean official, said those moves are merely a reversal of ill-intentioned activities by South Korea that should never have been initiated in the first place."In other words, it's not even something worth our assessment," she said."We again make clear the official position that whatever policy is established in Seoul or proposal is made, we are not interested, and we will not be sitting down with South Korea and there is nothing to discuss."South Korea's Unification Ministry said Kim Yo Jong's comments "show the wall of distrust between the South and the North is very high as a result of hostile and confrontational policy over the past few years."South Korea will continue to make efforts for reconciliation and cooperation with the North, ministry spokesperson Koo Byoung-sam told a has been cautious optimism in the South that the North may respond positively and may even show willingness to re-engage in dialogue, particularly after Pyongyang also shut off its loudspeakers, a move Lee said was quicker than Lee, whose government is in the midst of tough negotiations with Washington to avert punishing tariffs that President Donald Trump has threatened against a string of major trading partners, has said US alliance is the pillar of South Korea's said on the anniversary of the Korean War armistice on Sunday Seoul would make efforts in all areas to "strengthen the South Korea-US alliance that was sealed in blood."advertisementNorth Korea also marked the anniversary which it calls victory day with events including a parade in Pyongyang, although state media reports indicated it was at a relatively lesser scale compared to some previous of soldiers marched holding portraits of commanders including state founder Kim Il Sung with spectators and frail veterans in historic army uniforms in attendance in state media photos, which did not show major weapons as part of the parade.A formation of military jets flew over the Pyongyang Gymnasium square in the night sky trailing streaks of flares and fireworks. State media made no mention of leader Kim Jong Un's two Koreas, the United States and China, which are the main belligerents in the 1950-53 Korean War, have not signed a peace treaty.- EndsTrending Reel
Time of India
39 minutes ago
- Time of India
North Korea says 'no reason' for talks with South
Leader Kim Jong Un's powerful sister SEOUL: North Korea has no interest in pursuing dialogue with the south, leader Kim Jong Un 's powerful sister said Monday, dismissing a new president in Seoul who has vowed to mend ties. Since his election in June, south Korean president Lee Jae Myung has broken with his predecessor's hawkish tone on the north and halted loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border, begun in response to a barrage of trash-filled north Korean balloons. North Korea has ended its own propaganda broadcasts, which had boomed strange and eerie noises into the south. But such gestures do not mean Seoul should expect a thawing of icy ties, Kim Yo Jong said in an English dispatch carried by the north's official Korean Central News Agency on Monday. "If the ROK... expected that it could reverse all the results it had made with a few sentimental words, nothing is more serious miscalculation than it," she said, referring to south Korea by its official name. "We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither the reason to meet nor the issue to be discussed with the ROK," she added. "The DPRK-ROK relations have irreversibly gone beyond the time zone of the concept of homogeneous," she said, using the north's official acronym. Seoul said Kim's statement, Pyongyang's first reaction to Lee's overture, "reaffirms the high level of mistrust between the two due to years of hostile policies". by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Indonesia: Unsold Sofas at Bargain Prices (Prices May Surprise You) Sofas | Search Ads Search Now Undo "We take this as a sign that the north is closely monitoring the Lee administration's North Korea policy," Unification Ministry Spokesman Koo Byung-sam said at a press briefing. Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP that Kim's statement underscored Pyongyang's entrenched anti-south stance. "It declares that its hostile perception towards the south has become irreversible," he said. The two countries technically remain atL war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. The United States, a key security ally of south Korea, keeps around 28,000 troops in the south to help it defend attacks from the nuclear-armed north. The south's Lee has said he would seek talks with the north without preconditions, following a deep freeze under his predecessor when relations plummeted to their worst level in years.
Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Indian Express
Sister of North Korean leader Kim rejects outreach by South's new president
The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed overtures by South Korea's new liberal government, saying Monday that North Korea has no interests in talks with South Korea no matter what proposal its rival offers. Kim Yo Jong's comments suggest again that North Korea, now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia, has no intentions of returning to diplomacy with South Korea and the US anytime soon. But experts said North Korea could change its course if it thinks it cannot maintain the same booming ties with Russia when the Russia-Ukraine war nears an end. 'We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed with' South Korea, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media. It's North Korea's first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, which took office in early June. In an effort to improve badly frayed ties with North Korea, Lee's government has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border and repatriated North Koreans who were drifted south in wooden boats months earlier. Kim Yo Jong called such steps 'sincere efforts' by Lee's government to develop ties. But she said the Lee government won't be much different from its predecessors, citing what it calls 'their blind trust' to the military alliance with the U.S. and attempt to 'stand in confrontation' with North Korea. She mentioned the upcoming summertime South Korea-U.S. military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea has been shunning talks with South Korea and the U.S. since leader Kim Jong Un's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons targeting its rivals. North Korea now prioritizes cooperation with Russia by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine, likely in return for economic and military assistance. South Korea, the U.S. and others say Russia may even give North Korea sensitive technologies that can enhance its nuclear and missile programs. Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn't publicly responded to Trump's overture. In early 2024, Kim Jong Un ordered the rewriting of the constitution to remove the long-running state goal of a peaceful Korean unification and cement South Korea as an 'invariable principal enemy.' That caught many foreign experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his predecessors' long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on the North's terms. Many experts say Kim likely aims to guard against South Korean cultural influence and bolster his family's dynastic rule. Others say Kim wants legal room to use his nuclear weapons against South Korea by making it as a foreign enemy state, not a partner for potential unification which shares a sense of national homogeneity.
