South Korea has announced that its analysis of the wreckage from a North Korean spy satellite, which crashed into the sea, indicates that the equipment had no significant military purpose.
On May 31, Pyongyang launched what it claimed to be its first military spy satellite. However, the rocket failed shortly after takeoff and fell into the sea off the west coast of South Korea.
South Korea’s military promptly initiated a salvage operation, involving aircraft, the navy, and deep-sea divers, to retrieve debris from the rocket and the satellite itself.
The parts were examined by experts from South Korea and the United States, as confirmed by the defense ministry in Seoul on Wednesday.
Following the 36-day salvage operation, the ministry stated that the experts “concluded that the satellite had no military utility as a reconnaissance satellite.”
According to Lee Choon-geun, an expert at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute, the initial assessment revealed that the satellite had poor reconnaissance capabilities in terms of resolution and target tracking.
Original from www.aljazeera.com