North Korea has successfully repaired and relaunched its new 5,000-ton naval destroyer less than a month after the boat embarrassingly capsized, according to state media reports.
The Korean Central News Agency said the destroyer — the second one Pyongyang has built this year — was back in the water on Thursday.
KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Images
The reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was reportedly at the launch, held along the country’s east coast.
Kim said the new battleship stood as “convincing proof of the rapid transformation of our Navy. … No one will doubt, I think, the rapid transformation of our Navy as they have witnessed the launching of another new-type destroyer less than two months after a similar event at the Nampho Shipyard.”
Kim repeated prior claims he would bolster North Korea’s navy in response to perceived threats posed by the US and its Asian allies.
“The super-radical growth of our Navy’s operations capability is now being proved by powerful entities, not by a prediction or possibility, and this has already become an unstoppable, powerful current of history,” said Kim.
The ruler of the hermit kingdom previously attributed last month’s botched launch to criminal negligence. Four officials were later detained, including the vice director of the Workers’ Party’s munitions industry department.
Meanwhile, Kim has been visiting military industrial factories across the country, calling on the country to ramp up production of shells in order to meet the demands of war in the 21st century.
KCNP reported Kim “gave field guidance at a major munitions industry enterprise” on Friday, and “learned in detail about shell production, capacity expansion and modernization projects in the first half of 2025.”
