Life is cheap and mistakes are costly in North Korea. In that country, the concepts of love and friendship do not exist. All feelings of love are to be directed at Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un. You feel nothing when someone else starves or disappears because she disappointed Dear Leader. After the newest Navy Destroyer failed to launch, the only people waiting for the outcome are Western outsiders. The North Korean locals, not directly involved with the disaster, have already moved on.

It’s very difficult for Westerners to accept the concept of living without love and friendship, we are so tribal, so clannish. Proud of our name and heritage. Genealogy is a popular hobby. Not in North Korea. Love and friendship are not allowed. Neither is the concept of “I” or the individual encouraged.

Thursday was a very bad day for “Little Rocket Man”, Kim Jong-Un. It was to be the launching of the second Destroyer constructed and launched since April. Oops. The description of the non-launch is terrifying. From Fox News:

North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un was left fuming this week when he attended the botched launch of a new 5,000-ton naval destroyer.

The launch, at the northeastern port of Chongjin, was intended to tout the communist nation’s military advancement, but ended in embarrassment for Kim after the ship slid off a ramp and became stuck, state media reported.

The flatcar failed to move alongside the ship, throwing it off balance and crushing parts of the ship’s bottom, North Korean news agency KCNA reported. Its stern slid down the launch slipway, while its bow section failed to leave the ramp.

What most of us know about boating launching is backing the truck down the boat launch, right? It’s quite complex with big ships. We usually think of ships sliding backwards into the water. The horizontal launch, causes less stress on the ship, and is the preferred launch method. It allows for a ship to be launched with less space. It’s full of science and math and competence. Like these launches:

See examples of how a giant ship is launched. pic.twitter.com/Df7scLVI2h

— Mark Lane (@marklanebiz) May 11, 2019

Being ruled by fear doesn’t always aid science, math or competence. Kim Jong-Un was accompanied by his 13 year old daughter and presumed successor Kim Ju Ae. That probably added to the embarrassment for Little Destroyer Man. According to Newsweek, it was a big “oops”:

During Thursday’s launch, the destroyer became stuck after the transport cradle beneath the stern section slid off, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Images supplied to Newsweek by U.S. commercial satellite firm Planet confirmed the ship was resting in an awkward position at Chongjin’s Hambuk Shipyard Thursday, partially covered by blue tarpaulins to mask the damage.

Well, “awkward” is one way to put it. Let’s go to the video tape:

A high-definition image captured by Germany-based Airbus Defence and Space shows the vessel listing heavily to starboard.

“Vessel now covered, but angle consistent with reporting bow got stuck on slideway. It is likely the vessel may be on its side or at least partially submerged,” Joseph Dempsey, research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“North Korea’s admission of failure is rare but would have likely been undeniable once satellite imagery revealed the extent of the ‘serious accident,'” he added.

Jong-Un couldn’t deny the failure, the launch of the Destroyer was broadcast on state-run TV because the April launch worked beautifully. Now, heads must roll, erm, people must pay, uh, the guilty must see the error of their ways.

From Stars and Stripes:

Extensive repairs are underway on a new North Korean destroyer after a “serious accident” damaged the warship during its ceremonial launch, state-run media reported Thursday. As the 5,000-ton destroyer was being launched Wednesday, the flatcar carrying the warship failed to move, causing the stern to depart by itself and become stuck on the launch slide at the Chongjin Shipyard in North Korea’s eastern coast, the Korean Central News Agency reported the next day. The destroyer’s hull was crushed and the vessel failed to leave the shipway, according to the report. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who oversaw the ceremony, described it as “a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism,” KCNA said. Kim reportedly demanded the “immediate restoration” of the destroyer and an investigation into the incident.

snip–

North Korea often embellishes its military and technological capabilities and rarely admits to mistakes, according to Koh Yu-hwan, emeritus professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University and the former president of the Korea Institute for National Unification. The latest incident, however, was difficult to conceal from the public eye, Koh said by phone Thursday. “In this case, [Kim] participated in the warship launching ceremony and many people would have seen the accident,” he said. “It was a big event with the military and civilians present. They would have agreed that they could not hide the accident and decided to make it public.”

Free people, fully fed and housed, allowed to love and have friends and work under their own autonomy, will always have better outcomes, necessarily, than a starved and enslaved people. Not that we don’t make mistakes, but we usually don’t lose our lives over our mistakes.

God Bless America on the Memorial Day Weekend.

Welcome Instapundit Readers!

Featured Image: Grok/X/Public Domain