S. Korea retrieves N. Korean spy satellite wreckage, ends salvage operation: military

Defense 10:03 July 05, 2023

SEOUL, July 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has retrieved a North Korean spy satellite wreckage and concluded it has "no military utility," Seoul's military said Wednesday, ending a 36-day operation to salvage the sunken debris of a failed North Korean space rocket launch in late May.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that the military raised multiple key parts of the rocket and the satellite through the operation that began May 31 and ended earlier in the day.

South Korean and U.S. experts have conducted a detailed analysis of the wreckage and found that the salvaged satellite debris has no military utility, the JCS said.

On May 31, the North fired what it claimed to be the new Chollima-1 rocket carrying the satellite, Malligyong-1, but it crashed into the sea due to the abnormal starting of the second-stage engine, according to its state media.

The South Korean military began salvage operations for the wreckage immediately after the launch and raised a presumed part of the rocket's second stage on June 15 amid expectations that a probe into it could shed light on the progress of the North's long-range rocket development program.