What the resounding failure on the launch of a ship (and its reflot) reveals about the North Korean regime

This furious outburst, followed by the rapid repair of the ship, teaches us a lot about the North Korean regime, whose movements are often so difficult to decipher.

First, it reveals to what extent North Korea takes the construction of a nuclear army seriously.

Despite having an increasingly large and sophisticated nuclear arsenal, and a huge permanent army, the North Korean Navy is considered much lower than those of its enemies – south corea, Japan and the United States – that have some of the most powerful naval fleets in the world.

“Kim Jong-un believes that nuclear weapons are the only way to protect his country and, nevertheless, everything he has in the sea is an old submarine and some small support ships,” said Choi Il, a retired captain from the South Korean Navy.

Therefore, almost from the beginning of his government, Kim has given priority to the construction of a modern and powerful army, endowed with nuclear weapons.

This war ship is a key first step towards this goal. It is one of the two destroyers that North Korea has built in the last year, the first of which I successfully threw in April.

With a weight of 5,000 tons, they constitute the largest warships of North Korea. They are capable, in theory, to shoot short -range nuclear missiles.

According to Choi, which now directs the South Korean Submarine Research Institute, it is very strange that a destroyer of this class turns during its construction and launch, given the advanced technology necessary to build it.

Therefore, it would have been “a very embarrassing incident” for Kim Jong-un, he said, because “it highlights the limitations of the north-north Korea naval construction.”

Worse, this emblematic project failed before his eyes. Kim attended the ship's launch ceremony, along with his daughter and a multitude of spectators.

“North Korea is obsessed with showing off. I imagine that they were planning a whole series of performances, so, of course, Kim could not avoid being enraged,” Choi added.

But North Korean propaganda experts believe that Kim Jong-un's outburst is more than simple anger and humiliation.

The decision to make public the shipwreck in the way he did was a deliberate political strategy, they say, and demonstrates that Kim is moving away from the government's tendency to hide unpleasant truths.

Rachel Minyoung Lee, from the Stimson Center, based in Washington, which has been analyzing North Korean propaganda decades, explained how it has become a fundamental pillar of Kim's strategy.

Before Kim came to power, and even in the first years of his government, the regime concealed everything negative as a way of controlling the narrative.

But as the information has begun to spread more freedom in North Korea, it has become more difficult to cover up such important incidents.

“The leaders decided that it was almost nonsense to try to hide what people already knew, and that it was more effective to show people who were dealing with the problems,” Lee said.

“Now when there is a problem, you do it public, call those responsible and demonstrate people who do not do their job, will have to give up. And in doing so, you show everyone that the government and leaders are fulfilling their work.”

In the case of the war ship, this strategy seems to have worked with remarkable efficiency. Repairs were completed earlier than expected, in just over three weeks, challenging the expectations of naval experts.

“The rapid relaunch demonstrates how even a failure can become a political success,” said Kim Dong-Yup, an attached professor at the University of North Korean Studies of Seoul.

But he and others claim that Kim has used this incident not only to project success, but to reinforce the loyalty of the population to the regime and their ideology, another constant characteristic of its government.

The ship overturned to be thrown laterally from the dock to the sea – a complicated maritime maneuver – and part of the bow was stuck in the launch ramp.

But instead of presenting it as a technical failure, Kim Jong-un said that the incident was due to an “absolute imprudence and irresponsibility.”

In contrast, he praised a worker who died during the construction of the ship, for “putting his blood and sweat” in the project.

“They turned their death into a symbol of devotion, to reinforce the loyalty of the people,” said Professor Kim Dong-yup.

Instead of introducing Kim Jong-un as an infallible God, as was the case of his father and grandfather, they hunted the loyal worker, he said.

“It is a great change in the government technique of North Korea and shows the amazing capacity of Kim Jong-un to adapt and control the narrative.”

For Lee, an expert in propaganda, the most important thing is that “North Koreans get everything they propose.”

“They set the goal of having a nuclear army, and now they are demonstrating that they are on their way to get it.”

No one thought they could build the destroyers in just over a year, or repair these damages in less than a month, but they have done it, Lee added, as they did with their nuclear and missile program despite the initial skepticism of the world.

Choi, retired ship captain, agreed. “People can see this episode and laugh, and think” Oh, North Korea is so late “, but they are making significant progress,” he said.

The most worrying, according to him and others, is that Kim Jong-un intends to transform his Navy, which is limited to patrolling his own seas, in a capable of crossing the oceans of the world and launching preventive nuclear attacks.

“We must be alert and prepare accordingly,” he said.

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