South Korea salvaged a failed North Korean spy satellite from the sea, giving it a rare direct look at Pyongyang’s capabilities even as it concluded that the technology had little military value.
Officials on Wednesday said they concluded a 36-day salvage operation that deployed ships, aircraft and deep-sea divers to search for the rocket that was launched on May 31 but failed a few minutes into flight before crashing in international waters in the Yellow Sea. The salvage operation will likely end up being the most significant by the outside world on a North Korean rocket.
"Through this operation, major parts of North Korea’s space launch vehicle and satellite were recovered, and after careful analysis by American and South Korean experts, it was determined that they had no military efficacy as reconnaissance satellites,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
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