That his failure on a military ship teaches us about Kim Chen Uno

When a new North Korean warship passed into the sea last month, he created international headlines. News Organizations follow each development, from its successful processing to one’s Restore last Friday.

But why did this interest, given that there were no victims, and the damage to the corps was relatively insignificant?

The intrigue is less relevant to the failure and more with the way Kim Jong Un has reacted.

Kim immediately announced a failure as a “crime” that “cannot be allowed”, saying that he damaged the “dignity” of the country. He ordered the ship immediately and the responsible were punished. After that, four party officials were arrested.

This angry flash and then a quick ship repair, much to teach us about the North Korean regime, which is often so difficult to decipher.

First, it shows how serious North Korea refers to the creation of a nuclear armed fleet.

Despite the fact that the nuclear arsenal that grows in size and sophistication and the huge permanent army, North Korea’s military -marital fleet is considered much inferior to its enemies – South Korea, Japan and the USA – which have some of the most powerful military -marital fleets in the world.

“Kim Jong Un believes that nuclear weapons are the only way to defend his country, and yet everything in the sea is an old submarine and small support ships,” said Choi, South Korea’s Navy captain.

Therefore, from the beginning of its reign, whom has been prioritized to the construction of a modern and powerful fleet equipped with nuclear weapons.

This warship is a key first step to this purpose. This is one of the two destroyers that North Korea built over the last year, the first of which he successfully launched in April. Weight 5000 tons, they are definitely the largest military ships of North Korea, and, theoretically, capable of shooting nuclear missiles.

According to D -Choya, who now heads the scientific and research institute of South Korea, it is rare for the destruction of this class during its construction and launch, given the advanced technologies necessary for construction.

So, it would be a “very unpleasant incident” for Kim Jong -un, he said, because he “emphasizes the restrictions on North Korea’s shipbuilding.”

Worse, this flagship project failed before the eyes. Kim attended the launch ceremony with her daughter and a crowd of viewers.

“North Korea is obsessed with the demonstration. I think they planned a whole series of performances, so, of course, who could not but unleash,” Mr.

But North Korea’s propaganda experts believe that Kim Jong -un’s explosion is much more than raw anger and humiliation.

It is said that choosing the publishing trouble in how he did it was a deliberate political strategy, and shows that anyone departs from the tendency to hide the unpleasant truths.

Rachel Migun Lee of the Washington Center of the Styson, which analyzed North Korean propaganda for decades, explained how this became the main support of Kim’s propaganda strategy.

Before anyone came to power, and even in the early years of his rule, the regime would hide something negative as a way to control the story.

But as the information began to spread more freely to North Korea, it became harder to cover such basic incidents.

“The leadership decided that it was almost stupid to try to hide what people already knew, and much more effectively show the people they deal with problems,” Mr. Lee said.

“Now that the problem arises, you publish it, you call those who respond, and demonstrate to people that if you do not do your job, you will be held accountable. And doing so, you let everyone know that the government and the leadership do their jobs well.”

In the case of a warship, this strategy seems to be extremely effective. The repair was completed ahead of schedule, just over three weeks, giving up the expectations of military experts.

“Quick recovery shows how even failure can be transformed into political success,” said Kim Dong-Yup, associate professor at North Korean Studies in Seoul.

But he and others say that who used this incident not only to success the project, but to strengthen people’s loyalty to the regime and its ideology – another consistent feature of its management.

The ship overturned when it was launched by the side of the sea – a complex sea maneuver – and part of the bow was stuck to launch. But instead of presenting it as a technical failure, Kim Jong Un claimed that the incident was caused by “absolute negligence and irresponsibility”.

In contrast, he praised the worker who died during the construction of the ship, for “investing blood and sweat” in the project.

“They turned his death into a symbol of devotion to strengthen the faithfulness of people,” said Professor Kim Dong-Yup.

Instead of presenting Kim Jong -un as an unwavering God, as it was in the case of his father and grandfather, they raised a faithful worker, he said. “This is a great shift in North Korea’s ruling technique and shows Kim Jong Unnets and control the story.”

The biggest departure for Ms. Lee, an expert on propaganda, is that “the Northern Koreans achieve what they sought to do.”

“They set this goal to have a nuclear -armed fleet, and now they demonstrate they are on the way to reaching it.”

No one thought they could build destroyers just over a year, or repair this damage in less than a month, but they added, as in their nuclear and missile program, despite the original skeptics in the world.

Mr. Choi’s Navy captain agreed. “People can look at this episode and laugh, and think,” Oh, North Korea is so far behind, “but they are significant successes,” he said.

In most cases, say, he and others, this is that Kim Jong Un intends to turn his fleet from being limited to patrolling his own seas into what will be able to sail in the world of the oceans and run previous nuclear strikes.

“We must be vigilant and prepare accordingly,” he said.

Additional reporting of Hos Lee and Lihun Choi.