Global Courant
SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean military said Wednesday it recovered the wreckage of a North Korean spy satellite that crashed into the sea in May after a failed launch and found it had no meaningful military use as a reconnaissance satellite.
Last month, the military also recovered parts of the missile used in the failed launch; the booster and payload crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff.
“After a detailed analysis of large parts of North Korea’s space launch vehicle and satellite that were recovered, South Korean and US experts determined that they had no military utility at all as a reconnaissance satellite,” the military said in a statement.
The South’s military said on Wednesday it had ended salvage operations, which began immediately after debris splashed off South Korea’s west coast on May 31. Aircraft, the Navy and deep-sea divers were involved in the effort.
According to South Korean military experts, it is the first time South Korea has secured a satellite launched by the North.
The initial assessment found that the reconnaissance capability of the equipment was poor in terms of resolution and target tracking, said Lee Choon-geun, an expert with South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.
Yang Uk, a fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, also said that “the resolution of the optical device loaded on the satellite was not suitable for military use.”
The South Korean military monitored the launch of the spacecraft and identified a large cylindrical piece of debris in the water a few hours after launch, but the object sank to the sea floor.
It was recovered two weeks later.
Last month, North Korea made a rare candid public admission of the launch failure, saying it was its “most serious failure” but promising to soon succeed in its orbital quest.
The nuclear-armed north has been running a satellite launch program since the 1990s and has announced it will launch its first reconnaissance satellite to improve monitoring of US military activity.
In 2012 and 2016, North Korea launched objects that are still in orbit. Pyongyang said they were observation satellites, but there is no confirmation that they are functioning or transmitting signals.
The May 31 launch was widely condemned by South Korea, Japan and the West as a violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions banning the North’s use of ballistic missile technology.
Pyongyang rejects such criticism as an infringement of its sovereign right to self-defense and space exploration.
In a major policy speech in January 2021, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un pledged to develop military reconnaissance satellites. In recent months, Pyongyang appears to have upgraded its Sohae satellite launch station, possibly for another attempt.
At a ruling Workers’ Party meeting in June, North Korea blamed the loss of thrust in the second stage engine and criticized “irresponsible” preparations by officials and engineers involved.
