calendar>>May 22. 2025
Ceremony of Launching Newly-Built Destroyer Takes Place
Pyongyang, May 22 (KCNA) -- A ceremony of launching a newly-built 5,000-tonnage destroyer took place at the Chongjin Shipyard on May 21.

Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, watched the ceremony.

A serious accident occurred in the course of the launch of the destroyer.

Due to the inexperienced command and operational carelessness in the course of the launch, the launch slide of the stern has departed first and stranded as the flatcar failed to move in parallel, some sections of the warship's bottom crushed to destroy the balance of the warship and the bow couldn't leave the shipway, leading to a serious accident.

After watching the whole course of the accident, the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un made stern assessment saying that it was 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.

He warned solemnly that the irresponsible errors of the relevant officials of the Munitions Industry Department of the WPK Central Committee, the Mechanical Institute of the State Academy of Sciences, Kim Chaek University of Technology, the central ship designing institute and other relevant units and the Chongjin Shipyard responsible for the accident that brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse in a moment would have to be dealt with at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee to be convened next month and censured them for the fault.

He earnestly said that the immediate restoration of the destroyer is not merely a practical issue but a political issue directly related to the authority of the state and it should be completed unconditionally before the June Plenary Meeting of the WPK Central Committee, so as to make the ardent patriotic loyalty and labour devotion of the workers of the Chongjin Shipyard and the Rajin Shipyard bear fruitful as proud feats conducive to bolstering up the defence capabilities.

He gave important instructions on the work of the accident investigation group.

Copyright (C) KOREA NEWS SERVICE(KNS) All Rights Reserved.