South Korea elected a leftist president this week with minimal foreign policy experience and a predisposition to seek dialogue with the country’s communist enemies – a prime opportunity for the Chinese Communist Party to improve relations with Seoul, potentially at the expense of the United States.
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Seoul, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vented fury at his own military and other officials Wednesday after his country’s second naval destroyer was damaged in a failed launch that he was there to witness, state media reported Thursday. Kim wants bigger warships to deal with what he calls escalating U.S.-led threats against his country, amid a long-simmering standoff over his nuclear weapons.
It is uncommon for North Korea to acknowledge military-related setbacks or accidents, and observers say the disclosure of the failed ship launch suggests Kim is serious about his naval advancement program and confident of ultimately achieving that objective.
During a launching event at the northeastern port of Chongjin on Wednesday, the newly built 5,000-ton-class destroyer became unbalanced and was punctured in its bottom sections after a transport cradle on the stern section slid off first and became stuck, according to the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency. KCNA didn’t provide details on what caused the problem, the severity of the damage or whether anyone was injured.
KCNA/Reuters
According to KCNA, Kim, who was present at the ceremony, blamed military officials, scientists and shipyard operators for a “serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism.” Kim called for a ruling Workers’ Party meeting slated for late June to address their “irresponsible errors.”
“It’s a shameful thing. But the reason why North Korea disclosed the incident is it wants to show it’s speeding up the modernization of its navy forces and expresses its confidence that it can eventually build” a greater navy, said Moon Keun-sik, a navy expert who teaches at Seoul’s Hanyang University.
Moon suspected the incident likely happened because North Korean workers aren’t yet familiar with such a large warship and were rushed to put it in the water.
The damaged vessel was likely the same class as the country’s first destroyer unveiled last month, which experts assessed as North Korea’s largest and most advanced warship to date. Kim called the first vessel, named Choe Hyon — a famed Korean guerilla fighter during the Japanese colonial period — a significant asset for advancing his goal of expanding the military’s operational range and nuclear strike capabilities.
KCNA/Reuters
State media described that ship as designed to carry weapons systems including nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles. Kim said the ship was expected to enter active duty early next year and later supervised test-firings of missiles from the warship.
Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that the damaged vessel was likely equipped with similar systems and remains toppled over in the sea. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC appeared to show the vessel rolled onto its side, positioned diagonally from the dock, with most of its hull submerged and draped in blue covers.
Planet Labs PBC via AP
Earlier commercial satellite images indicated that the country was building its second destroyer at a shipyard in Chongjin.
Beyond Parallel, a website run by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said the satellite imagery of Chongjin’s Hambuk shipyard on May 12 showed that a second vessel in the Choe Hyon-class of guided missile destroyers was under construction.
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 been rarely used in North Korea. The report said the previous destroyer launched at the western shipyard of Nampo, in contrast, used a floating dry dock.
Planet Labs PBC via AP
South Korean officials and experts say the Choe Hyon destroyer was likely built with Russian assistance as the two countries’ military partnerships are booming. North Korea has provided Russia’s Vladimir Putin with equipment and even soldiers to aid in his ongoing invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
While North Korea’s naval forces are considered far inferior to those of its rivals, analysts say the destroyer with nuclear-capable missiles and an advanced radar system would still enhance the North’s offensive and defensive capabilities.
Kim has framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the United States and South Korea, which have been expanding joint military exercises in response to the North’s advancing nuclear program. In April, the U.S. military flew long-range B-1B bombers over the Korean Peninsula in joint exercise with the South, in a show of force against North Korea days after Kim’s powerful sister vowed to resist a U.S.-led push to eliminate the Pyongyang’s nuclear program
He says the acquisition of a nuclear-powered submarine would be his next big step in strengthening the North Korean navy.
Hours after releasing the report on the damaged destroyer, North Korea test-fired multiple cruise missiles from an area about 300 kilometers (185 miles) south of Chongjin, according to South Korea’s military. The launches were a continuation of a streak of weapons-testing activities by North Korea in recent years. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches were being analyzed by South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities.
A 17-year-old soldier who was killed during the Korean War has been accounted for 75 years after he went missing, officials said Monday.
Army Cpl. Albert J. Estrada was a member of Battery B, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 31st Regimental Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a news release. He began service in July 1950, according to the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation. He was one of tens of thousands of soldiers present at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in November and December 1950, the DPAA said.
During the battle, 30,000 United Nations servicemembers, including U.S. soldiers, faced off against 120,000 Chinese and North Korean enemy forces in “rugged terrain in lethally cold weather,” the DPAA said. The battle, which the DPAA described as “one of the most brutal” of the entire war, raged for 17 days.
Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation
Army officials wanted to push North Korean forces into China and sever supply lines near the Chosin reservoir, the DPAA said. But the North Korean forces launched a surprise attack that forced one group of soldiers to retreat in late November. A few days later, Chinese soldiers surrounded and isolated another group of soldiers. A task force was hastily assembled to try to organize a withdrawal. A “bitter fight” allowed U.N. forces to open an airfield to bring in reinforcements and evacuate casualties on December 1, according to the U.S. military, and eventually, the U.N. soldiers managed a full retreat.
More than 1,000 U.S. Marines and soldiers were killed during this time, the DPAA said. Thousands more were injured or incapacitated by the cold weather. Due to the elements and the retreat, “hundreds of fallen Marines and soldiers were unable to be immediately recovered,” the DPAA said.
Estrada was one of the soldiers who could not be located after the battle. He was reported missing on Dec. 6, 1950. There was no information to indicate that he was ever held as a prisoner of war, the DPAA said. Three years later, on Dec. 31, 1953, the U.S. Army issued a presumptive finding of death.
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Between 1953 and 1954, the North Korean government returned thousands of remains of soldiers who had died during the Korean War. The remains had been buried in U.N. cemeteries in North Korea. The effort, known as Operation Glory, included the return of 500 sets of remains that had been buried near the Chosin reservoir. All but 126 of the remains were identified. The unidentified remains were buried as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, the DPAA said.
From 1990 to 1994, the North Korean government returned 47 additional containers of remains attributed to the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. From those recovery efforts, the DPAA and the organizations that preceded it were able to identify over 130 of the unaccounted-for missing personnel lost in the Chosin Reservoir Campaign.
The DPAA did not say which handover Estrada’s remains were recovered from. A full announcement of his accounting will be shared at a later date, the agency said.
Estrada earned multiple military honors, including the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal, according to the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation.
Estrada’s surviving siblings, Manuel Estrada and Ruth Tucker, have long lobbied for his identification, according to a 2018 article from The Daily Democrat. That year, Tucker was presented with a medal from the Republic of South Korea honoring her efforts to account for missing American soldiers who died during the Korean War. At the time, Tucker said complete identification of Korean War remains can take between four and five years.
