How North Korea Botched Its Warship Launch

Launching big ships sideways requires delicate balancing work, said Mr. Choi, the retired South Korean Navy captain. Engineers at Chongjin, who worked with less developed facilities than their peers in Nampo, must have felt enormous pressure after the successful launch in Nampo, South Korean analysts said. North Korea has said that it can restore the ship’s balance by pumping out the seawater. The accident may be due not only to a defective sideways launching system but also to the ship’s structural imbalance, he said. “It doesn’t appear to have been built with the structural strength required for a warship.”