Seoul, Korea
CNN
–
New satellite imagery shows North Korea has deployed what appears to be balloons alongside a 5,000-ton warship that has lie on its flank and partially submerged.
The purpose of the object is unknown, but experts told CNN it could be used to help the ship stand upright or to protect it from the drone’s prying eyes.
The attacked destroyer was the country’s latest warship and was intended to be a victory in North Korea’s ambitious naval modernization efforts. Instead, a malfunction in the launch mechanism on May 21 caused the stern to slip prematurely into the water, crushing parts of the hull, leaving the ship tied to the ship, reported the state media KCNA with a rare entry of bad news.
North Korean leader Kim Jong, who witnessed a failed launch in the northeastern city of Cheongjin, called it a “criminal act,” and ordered the country, which he calls the issue of national honor, to be repaired quickly before the ruling Workers’ Party’s plenary session in late June.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is strengthening its navy. Can he succeed?
Since then, authorities have revoked the damage and rushed to punish those who claim to be responsible, detaining four people, including the shipyard’s chief engineer.
Analysts say balloons appear to be used in North Korea’s efforts to quickly repair destroyers.
“It appears that something that looks like balloons has been installed to prevent further flooding of the vessel, rather than rebuilt the vessel,” said Rep. Yoo Yong Waong, a South Korean MP and military analyst.
Retired US Navy CPT. Carl Schuster said that if the object is actually a balloon, it can have one of two purposes, either to prevent “low to medium level drone reconnaissance” or to reduce the stress that is still left behind on the pier on the ship’s parts.
“It is the area most likely to have been damaged, the most severely damaged, and remains under intense stress while the area ahead is outside the water,” he said.
Nick Childs, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said North Korea could be at risk of further damage to the ship if it uses balloons to float or raise it.
“It’s likely that the ship is under quite a lot of stress anyway,” he said, adding that lifting from above could exacerbate those stresses.
The usual procedure is to get as much buoyancy as possible on board and raise it from below, Childs said.
More than a dozen white balloon-like objects have been deployed around the destroyer since May 23, according to satellite images shared by Maxar Technologies.
Based on the shape of the object and what appears to be tail fins, they could be small versions of what is known as Aerostat aircraft. Like Blimps, Dirigibles gain buoyancy from lifting gases that allow them to float in air and water.
The images do not appear to show a flotation bladder supporting the hull or the body of the vessel, Schuster said – the US may use it in such circumstances. He added that North Korea’s maritime industry may not have made sufficient advances for such technology.
North Korean state media previously reported that the damage was not as serious as initially feared, and that there were no holes in the hull, but scratched along the sides and seawater entered the stern. Analysts are skeptical, but it was estimated that the repair would take about 10 days.
Schuster previously told CNN it could take up to six months depending on how much damage to the hull has stretched, the amount of water that entered the warship, and how much water has been filled with the “salt crust” with a “salt crust” formed on metal surfaces such as joints.
The unstable position of the ship makes salvage operations unusually complicated. “Having half of half in the water is basically the worst possible situation,” said Decker Eveleth, a semi-research analyst at CNA, a nonprofit specializing in defense research.
He added that surgery would be easier if the ship had been completely capsized by the water, or if it fell completely on land. “But there’s half the land and half the water, so when you try to pull on the sinking half, you’re trying to twist and break the keel,” Everez says, referring to the structural spine that runs along the bottom of the ship. “And then the whole ship is junk.”
Childs said it may be necessary to try and save what can be done, as it is a very complicated task for North Korea to cut the ship into pieces and then correct it from its current position.
“In a very often, the only way to clear a dock is to at least dismantle a portion of the ship to make surgery easier. You leave what you left and decide whether to rebuild or discard it,” he said.
