'Serious accident' occurs during launch of DPRK's new warship

PYONGYANG — A "serious accident" occurred when the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK, launched a newly-built 5,000-tonnage destroyer on Wednesday, the official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, reported on Thursday.

During the launching ceremony at the Chongjin Shipyard, the launch slide of the stern departed first and got stranded as the flatcar failed to move in parallel. As a result, some sections of the warship's bottom portion got crushed, destroying its overall balance. The bow could not leave the shipway, said the report, attributing the accident to "the inexperienced command and operational carelessness".

Kim Jong-un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, or WPK, and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, made a stern assessment after he watched the whole course of the mishap, calling it "a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism which is out of the bounds of possibility and could not be tolerated".

The accident "brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse in a moment," Kim was quoted as saying, adding the irresponsible errors of the relevant officials would have to be dealt with at the plenary meeting of the WPK Central Committee to be convened next month.

Immediate restoration of the destroyer, he said, is "not merely a practical issue, but a political issue directly related to the authority of the state" and should be completed unconditionally before the June Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee.

Xinhua