SpaceWar.com reports: “A 5,000-ton North Korean destroyer suffered a ‘serious accident’ during a launch ceremony, state media reported Thursday, with leader Kim Jong Un calling it a ‘criminal act’ and warning of consequences.

The accident took place Wednesday at the Chongjin Shipyard on the country’s east coast, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Due to ‘inexperienced command and operational carelessness,’ a malfunction in the launch mechanism caused the ship’s stern to prematurely slide into the water, the KCNA report said.

Some sections of the hull were crushed, upsetting the balance of the warship and preventing the bow from leaving the shipway, the report added.

After witnessing the accident, Kim Jong Un called it a ‘criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism which is out of the bounds of possibility and could not be tolerated,’ according to KCNA.

Kim blamed officials at multiple institutions involved in the ship’s design and construction, including the government’s Munitions Industry Department, the Mechanical Institute of the State Academy of Sciences and Kim Chaek University of Technology, for the incident. He warned that their ‘irresponsible errors’ would be dealt with at a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party central committee next month.

The accident ‘brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse,’ Kim said, and ordered the ship to be restored before the June meeting…”