North Korean shipbuilders are rushing as hard as they can to restore their Choe Hyon–class missile destroyer after the accidental capsizing during its launch on May 21. A special commission estimated repair time in a little over 10 days and the party leader Kim Jong Un gave a month to finish the job.
However, putting the vessel back into the vertical position took longer than expected, and required physical effort by port workers only to be finished on June 2, or 12 days after the incident. Re-launch into water also delayed and took place on June 5.
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Already lagging behind schedule, the Chongjin shipyard towed the destroyer 70 km from the accident site to a ship repair yard in the city of Najin, some 30 km from the border with russia. There, on June 8, it was placed in a dry dock for repair work, as seen in the latest satellite imagery shared by CSIS.
Interestingly, a few days earlier, fishing vessels and a tanker undergoing repairs in Najin were immediately removed from the dry dock, indicating that the final phase of the destroyer's building was planned to take place elsewhere. Therefore, this dry dock hosts the ship's repairs, not the finishing construction touches or equipping.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, a special group of experts is to conduct a second inspection and assessment of the damage to the destroyer in the dry dock. After that, the next stage of repairs is to begin, which should last 7 to 10 days.
In addition, as imagery shows, the starboard side of the destroyer remains damaged, and, most likely, the sonar in the bow. Such repairs are bound to take much more than 10 days.
North Korea has successfully completed initial salvage operations on the second Choe Hyon-class DDGHM. The vessel is now upright and moored in the center of O-Hang harbor.Read more from @CSISKoreaChair: https://t.co/QO0146g0X2— CSIS (@CSIS) June 8, 2025
Considering the destroyer survived 70 kilometers of transporting, the damage to the ship wasn't critical. Still, some of the ship's compartments were flooded with seawater, causing significant harm to the ship's wiring and electronics.
Satellite photos also reveal that all on-board weapons systems are missing. After the destroyer is restored, it will probably have to move to another shipyard to have them installed.
Given all this workload to be done, the deadlines set by Kim Jong-un should be extended. But there is a possibility that North Koreans will have the ship be completely restored externally for public display, while the systems inside will still need repair or replacement.
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