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The ROK Navy has found the remains of part of the first stage of North Korea’s long-range ‘Unha-3’ rocket off the coast of the Byeonsan Peninsula in North Jeolla Province, and is planning to begin recovery work today.
A Ministry of National Defense official explained earlier today, “Something that appeared to be a piece of the first stage fuel tank of North Korea’s long-range missile was discovered 160km off the west coast of Gunsan at 11:29AM yesterday morning. A boat from the King Sejong the Great went out to connect the wreckage with a cable, and as of that day at around 4:07PM, it was lying 80m below the sea.”
“The wreckage has the word ‘Ha’ written on it in Korean script, confirming that it is a fragment of the ‘Unha-3’ rocket,” the official added, saying that a second vessel has been deployed to the scene from the southerly city of Jinhae to undertake the underwater recovery effort, which is due to begin at 4PM today when the tide changes.
In April, the South Korean military was unable to recover any wreckage from North Korea’s last long-range missile launch, since the first stage broke up into more than 20 pieces at altitude and scattered across a wide area of sea.
