Kim Jong-un furious after his new warship capsizes and sinks while he watches

Kim Jong Un watched in embarrassment as North Korea’s second naval destroyer capsized during a failed water launch this week.

The North Korean leader has been pushing to modernise his naval forces, but the 5,000-tonne ship was ‘severely damaged’ in the mishap.

The new destroyer was launched Wednesday, but became unbalanced and was punctured in its bottom sections after a transport cradle on the stern section slid off first and became stuck.

Kim, who was present at the ceremony, blamed military officials, scientists and shipyard operators for a ‘serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism’.

The blundering workers placed a massive blue tarp over the half-sunken ship to cover their mistake.

Local news did not provide details on what caused the problem, the severity of the damage or whether anyone was injured.

It’s uncommon for North Korea to acknowledge military-related setbacks, so the disclosure of the failed ship launch suggests that Mr Kim is serious about his naval advancement programme.

Workers have covered the blunder with a massive blue tarp (Picture: AP) Kim Jong Un seemed less than impressed (Picture: AP)

He’s planned a ruling Workers’ Party meeting for late June to address what he called ‘irresponsible errors’.

Navy expert Moon Keun-sik, from Seoul’s Hanyang University, said: ‘It’s a shameful thing.

‘But the reason why North Korea disclosed the incident is that it wants to show it’s speeding up the modernisation of its navy forces and expresses its confidence that it can eventually build a greater Navy.’

Moon said the accident happened because North Korean workers rushed to put the ship in the water.

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