North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un reacted with anger after a new warship capsized into the sea during its launch last month. Kim framed the failure as a “criminal act” and ordered those responsible for the failure to be punished, with four officials subsequently arrested.
The leader of the secretive state branded the calamity as harmful to the country’s “dignity” but analysts believe that the reaction to an event which caused no casualties reveals more about the regime’s efforts to instil loyalty in its people than it does about the nation’s reputation internationally. Choi Il, a retired South Korean navy captain, said: “Kim Jong Un believes nuclear weapons are the only way he can protect his country, and yet all it has at sea is an old submarine and some small support ships.” Through this lense, the incident is obviously damaging to their military building efforts and according to Mr Choi, represents “a very embarrassing incident” for Kim Jong Un as it “highlights the limitations of North Korea’s shipbuilding”.
He told the BBC: “North Korea is obsessed with showing off. I imagine they were planning a whole series of performances, so of course Kim couldn’t help but be furious.”
But other analysts believe that the decision to publicise the failure is significant given the regime’s track record of concealing embarrassment and exaggerating success.
Rachel Minyoung Lee from the Washington-based Stimson Centre believes that the public acknowledgement shows a novel approach to failure from Kim when compared with his father and grandfather, who worked hard to portray themselves as infallible.
Lee said: “The leadership decided it was almost silly to try and hide what people already knew, and much more effective to show people they were dealing with problems.
“Now, when there’s a problem, you publicise it, you call out those responsible and demonstrate to people that if you don’t do your job, you will be held accountable.
“And in doing so, you let everyone know that the government and the leadership are doing their jobs well”.
The ship was eventually repaired and relaunched, allowing the North Korean leadership to portray it as a success and instil further loyalty amongst its largely impoverished population.