What North Korea lacks in technology, it makes up for in raw manpower and balloons.
The hermetic nation’s engineers appear to have followed through on Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un’s urgent demand to correct a listing naval destroyer that suffered a botched deployment last month.
A malfunction of the launch slide damaged the bottom of the ship and rendered it completely inoperable, listing just meters from the dock.
In a bid to get the destroyer back into operation by the end of June — a formidable deadline set by the Kim — dozens of North Korean personnel were deployed to manually pull the ship upright with tethers, according to a report from 38 North.
Additionally, a series of industrial balloons were set up and released on one side of the ship to help raise its listing end.
It was an impressive feat for a nation far behind most developed countries in technology and resources.
“After going through the re-examination of the overall condition of the hull by experts group the destroyer will be put into the next stage restoration,” Voice of Korea, a state media outlet, reported.
The Kim regime announced that the “elaborate restoration of next stage” will be undertaken at a “dry dock of the Rajin Ship Repair Factory and its duration is expected to be between 7 and 10 days.”
Jo Chun Ryong, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, is overseeing the repairs and promised that “full restoration of the ship will be concluded without fail before the convention of the Twelfth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Party Central Committee” at the end of the month.
The enthusiasm for the restoration was driven in no small part by Kim‘s severe reaction to the botched debut. The supreme leader was in attendance when the ship was initially damaged.
“The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un made [a] 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,” KCNA, another state media outlet, reported after the accident.
South Korean Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung won the country’s presidential election this week and made an overture to its northern neighbor.
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“I will work to build a peaceful and stable Korean Peninsula where coexistence is possible,” Lee said in his post-election speech. “While firmly exercising deterrence against the North through strong national defense, I believe it is better to win without fighting than to win through fighting — and better still to create a peace where fighting isn’t necessary at all.”
Lee made clear that he is pursuing a more stable and amicable relationship with North Korea and China, much to the outrage of some South Korean politicians who see such a prospect as a threat to the nation’s ties with the United States.
