After a big failure of Kim Jong-un’s regime, Vladimir Putin seems to try to hold a hand to the ally
North Korea has transferred a new damaged war ship in a failed launch to a port near the Russian border, which, according to analysts, could indicate a Moscow role in repairing the ship.
Satellite images captured on Sunday by Maxer Technologies, which can be seen in the cover photograph of this article, show the non-named five thousand tonnes in a dry dock in the port of Rajin, part of the North Korean Special Economic Zone, which confines with the short border with Russia.
Although not a large naval construction installation such as the city of Chongjin, in the northeast of the country, where the launch accident occurred, Rajin has modest reparation and maintenance facilities, confirms Yu Jihoon, director of external cooperation and associate researcher at the Korean Institute of Defense Analysis, based in South Korea.
In addition, its proximity to Russia “makes it a key point for North Korea’s efforts to deepen economic and potentially military ties with Moscow,” adds Yu.
A 2024 report from the West Point Institute of Modern War, the United States Military Academy, considers Rason’s economic zone “a significant point for North Russian Korea cooperation, recently implicated in North Korean weapons shipments to Russia for use in Ukraine”.
The war ship was damaged on May 21, when, during its launch, the stern went to the water, but the bow was trapped on land. The ship turned sideways in the failed maneuver.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who watched the launch ceremony, ordered the fresher to be repaired until the June Plenary session of the Workers Party in power, calling him a question of national honor.
State media state reported last week that repairs to Rajin’s dry dock would take between seven to 10 days, fulfilling Kim’s calendar.
Retired South Korean Admiral Kim Duk-Ki tells CNN that repair time would depend on the damage to the ship.
Kim admitted that it is possible for the sonar and the depth locators of the ship, located in the bow section, were damaged during the failed launch.
Such damage would probably require foreign aid to be repaired, he says.
“North Korea is believed to have no technology for sonar systems, so it is likely to have imported them from China or Russia,” says Kim.
But South Korean legislator Yu Yong-Weon reveals to CNN that his country’s armed forces believe that the probability of damage to the North Korean ship’s sonar is relatively low.
“The ship’s external damage do not seem significant, and the main question seems to be water flood on the war ship,” was the evaluation of the South Korean military, Yu adds.
The inner spaces of the ship, as well as machinery and electronics, will have to be purged from seawater and dry salt during the repair process, according to analysts.
Yu says Russian assistance in the repair process is a possibility, but it would be difficult to verify if it only involved engineers and not the displacement of large parts of equipment.
North Korea will have sent millions of ammunition, including missiles and rockets, to Russia last year, according to the multilateral sanction monitoring team.
In return, Russia has provided North Korea Valuable Armament Technologies, including air defense equipment, anti -aircraft missiles and electronic war systems, as well as refined oil, said the surveillance body last month.
