Aftermath of North Korean Frigate Launch Seen in Satellite Image

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North Korea’s latest frigate has been significantly damaged in an embarrassing incident during its launch ceremony, which was attended by Kim Jong Un. The country’s leader described the mishap as a “criminal act,” before calling for the warship to be quickly restored. Satellite imagery circulating online shows the vessel lying on its side next to the dock where it was launched. Blue tarpaulins are seen draped over it in an effort to obscure the incident from prying eyes in orbit overhead.

We now have additional satellite imagery and accompanying analysis of North Korea’s failed warship launch courtesy of the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ (CSIS) Beyond Parallel project, which can be found at the bottom of this story.

Satellite image of the frigate on its side next to the dock seen in the tweet below:

North Korea’s latest naval destroyer has been significantly damaged prior to its launch. In a rare acknowledgment, North Korea's state news agency KCNA reported yesterday an incident occurred with a new destroyer in Chongjin, which was close to being launched. pic.twitter.com/0PfuqehYnF

— Open Source Centre (@osc_london) May 22, 2025

Kim Jong Un’s fury inducing crippled in botched sideways launch destroyer spotted TODAY under blue tarps 👇

2nd Choe Hyon-class North Korea destroyer is sunk, leaning on her starboard side, bow over slipway.

Wonder why tarps also over slipway. Hiding pieces or what? https://t.co/TCIWVNbhV1 pic.twitter.com/bB8mhpij1B

— Tom Bike (@tom_bike) May 22, 2025

The vessel is the second of its class, following the Choi Hyon, which was officially unveiled last month. You can read all about the heavily armed class of frigates in our previous detailed analysis and follow-up report. The new frigate, the name of which is unknown, was being launched in the eastern port city of Chongjin yesterday.

In a very rare move, the incident was quickly confirmed by North Korea, perhaps in an effort to get ahead of the news cycle once satellite imagery of the warship put any question about what had happened beyond doubt.

Pyongyang’s state-run KCNA news agency provided the following details of what happened:

“Due to inexperienced command and operational carelessness, the parallel movement of the bogies could not be guaranteed, resulting in the launching sled in the stern detaching first and causing the ship to capsize. The ship’s balance was destroyed due to a rupture in the hull in some sections, and the bow section was unable to detach from the keel.”

In a photo taken in Seoul on May 22, 2025, people sit near a television showing news footage with a satellite still image courtesy of Maxar Technologies showing a general view of a new North Korean warship at the harbour ahead of its launch in Chongjin. A major accident occurred at the launch ceremony for a new North Korean naval destroyer, state media reported on May 22, with leader Kim Jong Un calling the mishap a "criminal act". (Photo by ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP) (Photo by ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)

The repercussions for those blamed for the incident, which “brought the dignity and self-respect of [the] state to a collapse,” are likely to be severe.

“Kim Jong Un made [a] stern assessment, saying that it was a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility … and could not be tolerated,” KCNA reported.

Kim said that the officials found responsible would be “dealt with at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee” in June. This is a high-level meeting of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party.

At the same time, Kim called for the frigate to be restored before next month’s meeting. This is a highly questionable timeline for the repairs, which are likely to be very extensive.

“The urgent restoration of the destroyer is not a simple practical issue, but a political issue directly related to the authority of the country,” Kim added.

Notably, the frigate was side-launched from the quay, in a new development for North Korea, which has previously used slipways to put large naval vessels into the water stern-first.

This @Planet 20 May capture shows the North Korean vessel moved from screened assembly area ahead of launch.
While the Nampo example was launched via floating drydock the Chongjin example appears to use a different side oiled slideway launching systemhttps://t.co/3BaPdAKM8k pic.twitter.com/OxfghxFsG1

— Joseph Dempsey (@JosephHDempsey) May 22, 2025

Side-launch of a ship is often used when the water channel is too confined to allow for a slipway. While spectacular, this method is more complicated, requiring extensive support of the ship’s weight along the length of its hull.

A video shows the side-launch of the future Littoral Combat Ship USS Milwaukee into the Menominee River in 2013:

The frigate is the second of its kind, which, with an estimated displacement of 5,000 tons, is the biggest in the North Korean naval fleet.

The first of the class, the Choi Hyon, was launched in April at the western port of Nampo.

As we reported at the time, only days after commissioning, the Choi Hyon was demonstrated firing a variety of weapons from its large array of vertical launch system (VLS) cells. The missiles appeared to include a previously unknown air defense missile and possibly a new supersonic cruise missile.

The most impressive feature of the North Korean frigate is its extensive array of VLS cells. As we have discussed before, the sheer number of VLS cells on this ship — 74 in all — is impressive, and these are provided in four (or possibly even five) different sizes to accommodate a wide range of missiles, including ballistic types.

Before this incident, however, there had been possible signs of corners being cut in the rushed program to build these vessels.

When the Choi Hyon was conducting weapons trials, there was a surprising suggestion that the warship still didn’t have its full set of propulsion machinery fitted. This would imply that the vessel was towed out of the harbor for its weapons tests, which is a possibility. That might also help explain claims that North Korea built the Choi Hyon in just over a year.

The speed of construction of the second frigate, at Chongjin, has also been rapid, and it’s likely that corners were cut to speed this prestigious program. On the other hand, mishaps during the launching of vessels, including warships, are also not entirely uncommon.

Meanwhile, the fact that North Korea is undertaking the simultaneous construction of two warships of this size in different locations is an impressive feat in itself. It points to just how important this program is to the regime and that its aspirations of putting by far its most impressive warship design into serial production are already manifesting (or at least attempting to). However, the fact that this is being done without first testing one of those hulls adds a significant level of concurrent risk.

As we have discussed before, North Korea’s frigate construction program is probably more about national prestige than building a credible fleet of surface combatants, evidenced by the fanfare surrounding the official unveiling of the Choi Hyon and Kim attending its weapons trials. At the same time, even a token capability can be powerful, especially if these frigates’ ballistic and cruise missiles can also be nuclear armed for strategic attacks.

Perhaps we will eventually learn more about what went wrong during yesterday’s launch, but for now, it’s an embarrassing setback for Pyongyang’s ambitious naval development program.

Update: 4:35 PM EST –

We now have additional satellite imagery, seen below, of the aftermath of North Korea’s failed launch of a new large surface warship, courtesy of Beyond Parallel, a project within the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington, D.C.

Beyond Parallel has also put out additional analysis of the incident from CSIS’ Senior Fellow for Imagery Analysis with the iDeas Lab and Korea Chair Joseph Bermudez, President of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and Korea Chair Victor Cha, and Associate Fellow and Project Manager for Imagery Analysis with the iDeas Lab and Korea Chair Jennifer Jun, which can be found in full here.

“Satellite imagery from May 22, 2025, corroborates” reporting from North Korean state media, Bermudez, Cha, and Jun note in their analysis. “The bogies under the bow – wheeled units under the frame carrying the vessel as it slides into the water of the side slideway – apparently caught or fell off the rails resulting in the stern swinging out into the O-hang harbor while the bow remained on the side slipway. 

“It is unclear if the crane and deck barges previously observed in satellite imagery on May 19 working along the shipyard’s side slideway had any connection to the failed launch,” the analysis from Beyond Parallel adds. “Had these barges been working on the side slideway’s rails and the work had not been undertaken with care and inspection; it may have been the root cause of the launching accident. It should also be noted that side slideway launching requires the vessel to have significant structural strength.”

“Aside from the factors revolving around the side slideway, bogies, and rail, a contributing issue may have been the Hambuk shipyard itself. As noted in our previous report, it was unusual that the Hambuk Shipyard was selected to undertake the construction of the second [Choi Hyon class warship],” it continues. “During its lifetime, the shipyard has produced cargo vessels, fishing vessels, and dredgers primarily and only occasionally manufactured small submersible infiltration craft and patrol craft. As such, the shipyard undoubtedly lacks significant expertise in manufacturing and launching large warships such as the new destroyer.”

The authors caution that it is still too early to tell whether or not the ship is a “total loss,” and how long it might take to salvage and/or repair the vessel if possible. They also note that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s reaction to the incident, as reported by the country’s state media, “will undoubtedly affect the livelihood and families of numerous managers and employees at the shipyard and supporting organizations. ”

Even just a delay in launching the ship will have “undoubtedly disrupted Kim Jong-un’s planned timeline for the development of the KPN [Korean People’s Navy] from a coastal defense force into a nascent blue-water force capable of strategic offensive operations. ”

Separately, Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, a member of the staff at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and Monterey, has also shared the sequence of satellite images below showing the North Korean warship before and after the failed launch.

Contact the author: [email protected]

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