After weeks of underwater scouring, South Korea’s military Thursday recovered a sizable chunk of a North Korean rocket that failed to send a spy satellite into orbit 15 days earlier.
The 12-meter-long, 2.5-meter-wide cylindrical object, believed to be the second stage of the three-stage rocket, was pulled up from the seabed. It was salvaged from a depth of 75 meters, according to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, some 200 kilometers from an island off the west coast. Dozens of deep-sea divers, as well as ships and aircraft, were committed to the mission after the rocket fell into the Yellow Sea May 31.
Images of the debris from what North Korea had referred to as the Chollima-1 showed an intact fuselage, curiously marked with a different name, “Cheonma.”
It will be studied by both South Korean and U.S. experts, Seoul’s military said, even as the careful salvage operation continues at sea, searching for the rocket’s third stage and payload.
Combing for clues
Considerable resources are being poured into the operation as the fallen debris offers a rare opportunity to directly observe North Korea’s missile-related advancements and to potentially source its parts.
A “failed start” of the second-stage engine was to blame for last month’s failed launch, according to reporting by North Korea’s state media, which also said the launch vehicle was carrying a military reconnaissance satellite, the Malligyong-1.
Analysts say an intact second-stage engine within the fuselage could offer clues into technological advancements also adaptable in intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The first-stage engine is presumed to be highly similar to the Hwasong-15 or Hwasong-17 ICBM engines, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported, though the second-stage engine is expected to be a newer iteration.
Chinese warships have also been combing the Yellow Sea, South Korea’s military said earlier this week, adding their operations have not interfered with its efforts as they are taking place in the open sea.
North Korea has vowed to realize its aim of putting a military spy satellite into orbit, denouncing criticism that poured in from world leaders against Pyongyang’s testing that defies United Nations resolutions banning ballistic weapons testing.
Pyongyang on Thursday also reverted to firing ballistic missiles, the first in about two months, with a pair of short-range ballistic missiles. A statement posted on KCNA just prior slammed South Korean and U.S. live-fire “annihilation” drills, promising to “fully counter” their demonstrative and provocative moves.
