North Korea is trying desperately to modernize its navy.

• A new North Korean naval destroyer had part of its hull smashed after a disastrous launch.
• State media wrote that the ship's stern slid off a ramp too early, causing the vessel to become stuck.
• Kim Jong Un, who watched, slammed the mishap as a "criminal act" and censured the officials involved.

A new North Korean naval destroyer was badly damaged during a botched shipyard launch that caused part of its hull to be "crushed," Pyongyang state media reported.

The Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday morning local time that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was attending the ceremony at the Chongjin Shipyard when the "serious accident" occurred.

Blaming "inexperienced command and operational carelessness," KCNA wrote that the stern of the 5,000-ton ship started sliding down a ramp too early and that a flatcar meant to support its weight didn't move with the vessel.

This report said this caused the ship to lose balance, leaving "some sections of the warship's bottom crushed" while the rest of the ship was stuck.

Per KCNA, Kim blasted the disastrous launch, saying it was "out of the bounds of possibility and could not be tolerated."

He also called the launch a "serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism," state media wrote.

It reported that Kim censured the officials responsible for the ship and its launch, including the country's munitions department and ship designers, and said their mistakes would be "dealt with" at a party meeting next month.

The North Korean leader was further cited as saying that the mishap "brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse in a moment."

The failed launch is a blow to Kim's military agenda, given his emphasis over the last two years on building up North Korea's maritime forces.

"A new historic time is coming before our naval forces," Kim said during a 2023 speech, declaring North Korea would focus on capabilities for projecting naval power beyond its own waters.

The same year, Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile submarine, the Hero Kim Kun Ok, which is a redesigned Soviet model equipped to fire cruise missiles.

Last month, North Korea launched the largest warship it had ever built, a 5,000-ton "multipurpose" destroyer, which it said was a new class of armed vessel.

That was at Nampo, a different shipyard. However, its tonnage could indicate that the vessel that failed to launch on Wednesday was in the same class. State media didn't provide further details about the damaged ship at Chongjin.

In March, North Korea said it was also building its first nuclear-powered submarine.

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On Thursday, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University unveiled LegoGPT, an AI model that creates physically stable Lego structures from text prompts. The new system not only designs Lego models that match text descriptions (prompts) but also ensures they can be built brick by brick in the real world, either by hand or with robotic assistance.

"To achieve this, we construct a large-scale, physically stable dataset of LEGO designs, along with their associated captions," the researchers wrote in their paper, which was posted on arXiv, "and train an autoregressive large language model to predict the next brick to add via next-token prediction."

This trained model generates Lego designs that match text prompts, like "a streamlined, elongated vessel" or "a classic-style car with a prominent front grille." The resulting designs are simple, using just a few brick types to create primitive shapes—but they stand up. As one Ars Technica staffer joked this morning upon seeing the research, "It builds Lego like it's 1974."

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• North Korea plans to open its Wonsan Kalma tourist site in June 2025.
• Pyongyang could see the gigantic beachfront resort as a way to rake in foreign cash.
• But North Korea experts told BI it's unlikely to tap into mass tourism markets.

Last October, a video of tanned, blond Russians relaxing on a North Korean beach went viral.

That beach is in Wonsan, on the Kalma peninsula — a stretch of North Korea's eastern coast now home to dozens of hotels and apartments — and is the latest puzzling artifact of Kim Jong Un's grandiose ambitions.

Reports of the exact scale vary from about 7,000 to 20,000 rooms, which could make the resort — called Wonsan Kalma — one of the largest single-entity-owned beach resorts on the planet.

"This is by far larger than anything else Kim has done" in tourism, Bruce W. Bennett, an expert in North Korean affairs at RAND, told Business Insider.

The dream for Kim: a world-class megatourism project displaying his totalitarian power to the world and at home, and a way to make money.

The question is who, exactly, will flock there.

The North Korean Embassy in London didn't respond to a detailed request for comment.

A modest tourist trade

The project, first announced in 2014, has been delayed several times. When the first delay was announced in 2019, Kim said that he didn't want to compromise on quality. Analysts speculated at the time that the delay could be due to import restraints caused by international sanctions.

The project also stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it's now scheduled to open in June. This means North Korea, which largely sealed off its borders at the start of the pandemic, could soon reopen to international tourism.

The country welcomed a group of tourists in February, before again resealing its borders. Tour operators are watching closely.

Rowan Beard, the cofounder of Young Pioneer Tours, the company that led the recent visit, has not yet seen Wonsan Kalma. He told BI he's impressed with what he's heard about it.

"There's a lot of really cool facilities there, not just built for tourists," he said. "It's also built for delegations. So there's special delegation rooms and presidential suites."

"It is huge. It's a city," he added. "It's like building the Gold Coast from scratch."

North Korean state media said in 2014 that the 3,460-acre site would feature an "underwater hotel, flower park, international meeting hall, exhibition and exposition hall," among hotels, condos, and apartments catering to every budget.

The region is already a popular destination for domestic tourists. Nearby Songdowon has an international children's camp, and in winter, tourists can visit the Masikryong Ski Resort, about 12 miles away.

State media reports that Kim has praised the region's beauty, having spent some of his childhood there, and owning a lavish private compound nearby.

"Wonsan is Kim Jong Un's Mar-a-Lago," Michael Madden, now founder of the North Korea-watching site NK Leadership Watch, told Reuters in 2015.

Mass tourism, niche interest

Facilities at Wonsan Kalma have appeared and disappeared over the years. South Korea-based SI Analytics has suggested that a mysterious turtle-shaped edifice will become an aquarium. A theater that popped up in 2021 has since been demolished.

In recent weeks, SI Analytics has observed increased flows of oil tankers to the nearby port, suggesting a rush to finish construction.

Beard told BI that his North Korean contacts had been expecting him to bring business there when it opens.

They're "expecting a high turnout," he said.

He plans to offer visits, but told his contacts that the level of interest may disappoint: He thinks he can bring about 100 people a year.

The problem is fundamental — Young Pioneer customers tend to be adventure tourists attracted by the company's edgy tagline: "Destinations your mother would rather you stay away from."

Experts BI spoke to expressed doubts that the site would have mass appeal for international tourists. It's a beautiful spot — but as RAND's Bennett put it: "This isn't Florida. This is North Korea."

"It's not even clear it will make money, given how much they've invested," said Marcus Noland, a North Korea expert and executive vice president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Pyongyang does not make its spending public, but as early as 2019, Kim said that "enormous funds and labor" had gone into the project.

While North Korea's use of forced labor may have cut costs, projects of similar scale worldwide run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The site may segregate North Koreans from international tourists, to keep locals from learning too much about the outside world, experts said.

"Kim has a deathly fear that outside information is going to reach his people," Bennett said.

That — and North Korea's lack of experience with hospitality — may make for something of a stilted vacation, Bennett said.

"You'll be in a bit of a bubble," Beard added.

The ruble to the rescue?

International tourism is attractive because it brings in cash that largely circumvents international sanctions.

But South Koreans — ostensibly the ideal customers for Wonsan Kalma due to their proximity and spending power — are unlikely to visit due to political tensions.

"The commercial logic is South Korea is your customer base, and the political logic is we have to keep South Korea at arms' length," Noland said.

Other likely international visitors could be from Japan, China, and, thanks to their ongoing military cooperation, Russia.

Vostok Intur, a travel agency in Russia's Vladivostok, began advertising tours to the resort in January. The all-inclusive trips, which start in July, cost about $420 — plus a further payment of $1,400 per person, which is likely Pyongyang's cut.

Last fall, Russia's ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, praised North Korea's hospitality after the Wonsan region hosted injured Russian soldiers.

Despite the diplomatic overtures, there's "a real question" of whether there will be enough Russian interest for a place that big to thrive, Bennett said.

"I don't see the Russians flocking to Kalma," Beard said, adding that Russians — like the rest of the world — "want to go to Pattaya in Thailand. They want to go to Goa, in India or they want to go to Dubai."

There's also likely a sizeable domestic audience for the site.

The state could offer workers trips there as a reward for exceptional performance, experts said.

Beard believes locals will be excited, thinking: "'Hey, we're getting our own Disneyland,'" he said.

The Trump factor

There's another possible audience for Kim's tourism drive — President Donald Trump.

Wonsan Kalma is being built against a backdrop of North Korea's desire to be recognized as a nuclear state.

In 2018, Trump encouraged Pyongyang to develop its "great beaches," and while North Korea is unlikely to welcome US tourists anytime soon, Trump and Kim speaking the language of real estate to each other could provide some sort of diplomatic stepping stone, Ellen Kim said.

But what if this site fails to impress, like Pyongyang's Ryugyong Hotel?

The unfinished hotel — dubbed "the hotel of doom" by the outside world for its imposing structure and failure as a project — has never become fully operational. It's the country's tallest building, begun under Kim Il Sung, Kim's grandfather.

"Kim Jong Un has always wanted to show that he was more modern and kind of more 'with it' than his father or grandfather," Noland said.

He may see Wonsan Kalma as his best way to prove that.

"I think he wants to really make it look like North Korea is a big deal," Bennett said.

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• Moscow released a new video on Monday of North Korean troops training with Russian small arms.
• The clips show them drilling and clearing trenches with newer weapons such as the AK-12.
• Washington and Seoul have been voicing concern about what North Korea may learn from the war and Russia.

Russia's defense ministry released a new video on Monday of North Korean troops training with modern small arms used in the Ukraine war.

The 77-second montage, published by state media outlet TASS, showed the soldiers drilling fire movements, shooting from cover, clearing trenches, and being taught how to use Russian standard service hand grenades.

Some troops can be spotted with the AK-12, a fifth-generation modular assault rifle that entered service in Russia around 2020. Several of the rifles can be seen equipped with reflex sights and foregrips.

Back home, North Korean troops are primarily known to train and fight with the Type-88, a localized version of the Soviet-era AK-74 rifle.

Additionally, the clips feature soldiers training with the SVD sniper rifle, also known as the "Dragunov," and the belt-fed PK machine gun.

Another clip showed a soldier handling an RPG-7, the rocket-propelled grenade launcher that Russia uses in service now. He fires a high-explosive anti-tank round from the weapon.

Notably, all of these small arms fall under the list of guns and equipment that Ukraine's military intelligence said Russia was providing to North Korean troops in November 2024.

The footage also showed a soldier firing into the air with a semiautomatic 12-gauge shotgun known as the Vepr-12, which can be seen equipped with an extended choke. This muzzle attachment is typically used to turn the shotgun into an anti-drone weapon because it reduces pellet spread and extends the gun's range.

Both Ukrainian and Russian troops have been known to rely on shotguns to take down drones at close range. TASS wrote that North Korean troops were training with the 12-gauge shotguns for this purpose.

The state media outlet also wrote that the soldiers in the clip had been part of North Korea's force in Kursk, where Pyongyang had sent thousands of troops to reinforce Russia. Business Insider could not independently verify the authenticity of that claim.

Russia and North Korea's alliance poses concerns for the West

The new clip comes after Russia and North Korea both openly acknowledged last weekend that North Korean troops had been fighting against Ukrainian forces, after months of staying silent on the matter despite mounting evidence of Pyongyang's involvement.

Their partnership has sparked alarm in the West and South Korea, who fear that North Korean troops may be gaining vital combat experience and learning to fight with and against modern weapons and drones.

Many of these soldiers were sent on ground infantry assaults that often resulted in death or heavy injury. This tactic has become a hallmark of Russia's strategy to exhaust Ukraine's resources. Initial reports from the front lines described Pyongyang's troops as unprepared, not knowing how to deal with exploding drones and taking heavy losses.

But there are signs they've been adapting, such as a drawing that Ukraine said it obtained from a captured North Korean fighter detailing how to bait out a drone using a fellow soldier. North Korean troops are likely also getting their first chance to observe Ukraine's use of advanced weapons such as HIMARS and the Abrams tank.

On the battlefield, they've proved far more tenacious than their Russian counterparts, charging in frontal "human wave" assaults and advancing without armor support. Ukrainian troops have said they struggled to capture North Koreans because the latter would often try to kill themselves rather than surrender.

A US State Department spokesperson told media outlets earlier this week that Washington was still concerned by Pyongyang's troop deployment, saying that third countries like North Korea "perpetuated the Russia-Ukraine war" and bear responsibility.

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• Meta's AI chief praised France's initiative to attract top scientists and engineers.
• France is increasing funding for universities and research organizations to entice foreign talent.
• Trump, meanwhile, has tightened immigration and cut research funding in the United States.

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has tightened immigration controls, cut funding for government grants and research, reduced staffing at NASA and NOAA, and attacked top universities.

France seems to have sensed an opportunity.

The National Research Agency, part of the Education Ministry, announced on Friday a "Choose France for Science" initiative to attract scientists from abroad, opening up more government funding for universities, schools, and research organizations to entice foreign talent.

"As the international context creates the conditions for an unprecedented wave of mobility among researchers around the world, France aims to position itself as a host country for those wishing to continue their work in Europe, drawing on the country's research ecosystem and infrastructure," the agency said in a statement.

In a LinkedIn post, French President Emmanuel Macron said that research is a "priority." "Researchers from around the world, choose France, choose Europe!" he wrote.

Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, who was born in France, responded to the announcement on Saturday, calling the initiative a 'smart move.'

LeCun has criticized Trump for targeting public research funding. Last month, he wrote on LinkedIn that the "US seems set on destroying its public research funding system. Many US-based scientists are looking for a Plan B."

In that same post, he told European countries, "You may have an opportunity to attract some of the best scientists in the world."

LeCun is not the only tech leader to criticize the Trump administration's policy decisions regarding science, research, and education. Last week, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the administration has launched a "total attack on all of science in America."

Speaking at the AI+Biotechnology Summit, Schmidt said he knew people in the tech space who planned to return to London because "they don't want to work in this environment."

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• About seven years ago, I moved from one of the cloudiest US cities to one of the sunniest — Reno.
• Instead of only spending half of my year in the sun, I spend around 70% of it basking in sunshine.
• I miss living near family, but the pleasant year-round outdoor lifestyle I have now is hard to beat.

In 2018, I moved from Youngstown, Ohio — one of the cloudiest cities in the US — to Reno, Nevada — one of the sunniest.

Whereas my hometown of Youngstown averages about 200 days of cloudy skies each year, Reno averages over 250 days of sunshine.

Moving across the country for graduate school was an exciting new start, and I couldn't wait to leave Ohio's dark, gray skies behind.

At the time, I was still a bit hesitant to leave my friends and family in the Midwest, but I hoped moving to a sunny climate would be a major lifestyle boost.

It was. Although I miss some parts of living in Ohio, I'm still based in Reno seven years later.

The sun is almost always shining in Reno — and the city still experiences all 4 seasons

Reno is regularly ranked among the top sunniest cities in the United States. The city, located in a high desert valley, typically sees sunny skies for the majority of the year.

During my first few months in Reno, I was shocked by how consistently I experienced sunshine and clear skies. The sky shined a vibrant shade of blue nearly every day — I had never seen such predictable weather in Northeast Ohio.

The weather also had a positive effect on my mood. I always dreaded Ohio's gloomiest days, and Reno's sunshine made me feel more cheerful and motivated.

Plus, I like that the city still experiences changing seasons — mild temperatures in spring and fall, heat in the summer, and even the occasional snowfall in winter.

I mostly enjoyed the changing seasons in Ohio, especially the state's stunning fall foliage. Winters, though, could be especially harsh with overcast skies and frigid temperatures.

In Reno, I can experience all four seasons while still enjoying the near-constant sunshine. A bit of sun definitely makes chilly winter days more pleasant.

I love the city's outdoor access — and the active lifestyle is hard to beat

After moving from Youngstown to Reno, I couldn't help but notice the lifestyle differences between a cloudy and sunny city.

With excellent weather and spectacular scenery, Reno's culture seems to revolve around outdoor activities.

Nearly every person I met here seemed to enjoy a variety of active hobbies, whether skiing, cycling, backpacking, or rock climbing. The sunshine just helps foster an active lifestyle.

Back in Ohio, I had trouble finding motivation to get outside on those dreary, cloudy days. In Reno, I relish the opportunity to explore the outdoors.

I've taken up road cycling and take any chance I can find to pedal through the valley and nearby Sierra Nevada mountains.

Plus, Reno's easy access to Lake Tahoe has put even more outdoor adventures at my fingertips when I want to go hiking, kayaking, or scuba diving.

I miss living near family, but I can't imagine living in a cloudy city again

After living in Nevada for years, the state feels like home. I love walking my dog on sunny hiking trails (even in winter!) and knowing I can expect relatively pleasant weather year-round.

That being said, I don't love everything about living here. The weather can be exceptionally windy at times, and summers come with a risk of smoke from nearby wildfires.

I miss living close to family, and the distance has been harder to handle since becoming an aunt to my adorable niece and nephews back east.

Even still, I can't imagine moving back. The outdoor lifestyle in Reno is unlike anything I experienced in the Midwest, and the sunshine keeps me feeling happy and motivated.

Although the future is uncertain, I know one thing for sure: I'd never choose to live in such a cloudy place again, and I'm happy to call sunny Reno my home.

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