SEOUL, June 16. /TASS/. The South Korean military has managed to lift a fragment of a North Korean carrier rocket that plunged into the Yellow Sea following an unsuccessful reconnaissance satellite launch on May 31, the Yonhap news agency reported citing South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The operation to lift the 15-meter-long fragment to the surface took several weeks and was completed at 8:50 p.m. local time (2:50 p.m. Moscow time) on Thursday. The fragment, presumed to be the space rocket’s second stage, was lying on the seabed at the depth of 75 meters.
On May 31, North Korea attempted to launch its first military reconnaissance satellite. Shortly after the launch, the Chollima-1 rocket carrying the Malligyong-1 military reconnaissance satellite had fallen into the Yellow Sea due to second-stage engine issues and fuel instability. According to the South Korean authorities, it fell 200 kilometers away from South Korea’s Eocheongdo Island. On the same day, South Korea began searching for fragments, eventually locating what is presumed to be the rocket’s second stage.
The operation to lift the fragment was complicated by its large weight, bad underwater visibility and rapid currents in the operation zone. Besides, due to the object’s cylindrical shape, divers found it difficult to attach tethers to it.
The recovered fragment will be taken to the headquarters of South Korea’s 2nd Fleet in the city of Pyeongtaek-si. Earlier, Washington and Seoul agreed to jointly examine it. A search effort for other fragments of the rocket, including the satellite that it was carrying, continued when the recovery operation was under way.