North Korea has moved a new warship damaged in a botched launch to a port near the Russian border, a move analysts say could point to a role for Moscow in repairing the vessel.
Satellite images taken on Sunday by Maxar Technologies show the 5000-tonne destroyer, as yet unnamed, in a drydock in the port of Rajin, part of North Korea’s Rason special economic zone, which abuts its short border with Russia.
While not a major shipbuilding facility like the shipyard in the northeastern city of Chongjin where the launching accident occurred, Rajin has facilities for modest repairs and maintenance, said Yu Jihoon, director of external cooperation and an associate research fellow at Korea Institute for Defence Analyses.
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And its proximity to Russia “makes it a key node for North Korea’s efforts to deepen economic and potentially military ties with Moscow,” Yu said.
A 2024 report from the Modern War Institute at West Point, the United States Military Academy, calls the Rason economic zone “a significant point of North Korea–Russia cooperation, recently implicated in North Korean arms shipments to Russia for use in Ukraine”.
The warship was damaged on May 21, when during its launch the stern went into the water but the bow stayed stuck on land.
The ship turned on its side in the botched manoeuvre.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who attended the launching ceremony, ordered the destroyer to be repaired by the late-June plenary session of the ruling Workers’ Party, calling it a matter of national honour.
State media reported last week repairs at the Rajin drydock would take seven to 10 days, meeting Kim’s timeline.
Retired South Korean Adm. Kim Duk-ki told CNN on Monday the repair time would depend on the damage to the ship.
Kim said it’s possible the ship’s sonar and depth finders, located on the bow section, were damaged during the botched launch.
Such damage would likely require foreign help to repair, he said.
“North Korea is believed to lack the technology for sonar systems, so they likely imported them from China or Russia,” Kim said.
But South Korean lawmaker Yu Yong-weon told CNN his country’s military believes that the likelihood of sonar damage on the North Korean ship is relatively low.
“The vessel’s external damage doesn’t seem significant, and the main issue seems to be the water flooding into the warship” was the assessment of the South Korean military, Yu said.
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Internal spaces of the ship, as well as machinery and electronics, will have to be purged of sea water and dried salt in the repair process, analysts said.
Yu said Russian assistance in the repair process was a possibility, but it would be difficult to verify if it only involved engineers and not the movement of major pieces of equipment.
North Korea is believed to have sent millions of munitions, including missiles and rockets, to Russia over the past year, according to watchdog the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team.
In return, Russia has provided North Korea with valuable weapons technologies, including air defence equipment, anti-aircraft missiles and electronic warfare systems as well as refined oil, the watchdog said last month.
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