North Korea refloats warship after failed launch

The 5,000-tonne destroyer, which was restored to balance earlier this week, was launched on Thursday and is now moored at a pier

North Korea has reportedly refloated a warship after it capsized during a launch attempt, in an incident that drew harsh criticism from the country's leader Kim Jong Un.

State-run news agency KCNA reported on Friday that the warship had "safely entered the water vertically" and had then been "moored at the pier".

It is expected to be fully repaired before a key meeting led by Kim which top officials in the one-party state will attend, KCNA said.

The 5,000-tonne destroyer can be seen upright at the pier and then about three hours later, "floating in the harbour" in satellite images published by specialist news sites 38 North and NK News.

The effort to right the ship, which had happened on Thursday, was a manual process, researchers at 38 North said, noting that satellite imaging showed workers on the quay pulling tethers and using barrage balloons to bring the vessel back to balance.

Some of the balloons appeared to still be attached to the vessel, they added.

Kim, who witnessed the warship tipping over during the failed launch about two weeks ago, had criticised the incident as a "criminal act" that "severely damaged the [country's] dignity and pride".

It was the result of "absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism", he added.

At least four officials, including Ri Hyong-son, the deputy director of the ruling Workers' Party's Munitions Industry Department, have been arrested over the incident.

Ri is part of the party's Central Military Commission, which commands the Korean People's Army and is responsible for developing and implementing North Korea's military policies.

It is not clear what punishment the officials might face, but the secretive dictatorship has been known to sentence officials it finds guilty of wrongdoing to forced labour or even death.

Some analysts saw Kim's swift and severe response to the earlier failed launch as a signal that Pyongyang would continue to advance its military capabilities.

The regime is "deeply invested in the image of a rising military power" and the failure may harden their resolve to push that forward, according to Jihoon Yu, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

Kim's "unusually severe" response to the failure is aimed at protecting the leader's image and reasserting his authority, he said.

Michael Madden, a North Korea expert from the Stimson Center in Washington, saw Kim's response as a sign of the "high priority" his regime is putting into developing warships.

Just weeks before the botched launch, Pyongyang had unveiled a similar warship in another part of the country.

Kim called that warship a "breakthrough" in modernising North Korea's navy and said it would be deployed early next year.