Seoul military salvages sunken North Korean space rocket wreckage

Seoul: The South Korean military has retrieved a sunken part of an ill-fated North Korean space rocket from the Yellow Sea, officials said Friday, capping a weekslong salvage operation hamstrung by poor underwater visibility, fast currents and other obstacles.

It raised the wreckage, initially thought to be the second stage of the rocket, at 8.50 p.m. on Thursday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, amid expectations that a probe into it could shed light on the progress of the North's long-range rocket development program, reports Yonhap News Agency.

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

On the same day, the South Korean military identified the wreckage when it splashed into the waters some 200 km west of the western island of Eocheong.

But it dropped to the sea floor at a depth of 75 meters due in part to its heavy weight.

The military initially assessed that the wreckage was about 15 meters long, half the length of the entire rocket -- a reason why expectations rose that an analysis of it could help elucidate how far North Korea's rocket technology has come.

For the retrieval operation, the Navy deployed a group of specially trained divers and two salvage and rescue ships, the ROKS Tongyeong and the ROKS Gwangyang, as well as the ROKS Cheonghaejin submarine rescue ship and a P-3 maritime patrol aircraft.

The retrieval process proceeded in phases.

"Due to the potential dangers, we had technical advisers on board so that we could take necessary steps while observing the situation," a JCS official told reporters.

"From the thickness of diving suits to other issues, we sufficiently took safety concerns into account."

The salvaged part will be transported to the Navy's Second Fleet in Pyeongtaek, 60 km south of Seoul.

South Korea and the United States plan to conduct a joint probe into it as agreed on during the allies' defense ministerial talks on the margins of an annual security forum in Singapore earlier this month.

The South Korean military is continuing search operations for additional parts of the space rocket wreckage, according to the JCS.