By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) -South&nbsp;Korea's&nbsp;military&nbsp;said&nbsp;on&nbsp;Wednesday&nbsp;it&nbsp;had&nbsp;retrieved&nbsp;the&nbsp;wreckage&nbsp;of a&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korean&nbsp;spy&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;that&nbsp;plunged&nbsp;into the&nbsp;sea&nbsp;in&nbsp;May&nbsp;after&nbsp;a&nbsp;botched&nbsp;launch&nbsp;and&nbsp;found&nbsp;it&nbsp;had&nbsp;no&nbsp;meaningful&nbsp;military&nbsp;use&nbsp;as a&nbsp;reconnaissance&nbsp;satellite.
The&nbsp;military&nbsp;last month also recovered parts of the rocket&nbsp;used in the failed&nbsp;launch; the booster&nbsp;and&nbsp;payload crashed into the&nbsp;sea&nbsp;soon&nbsp;after&nbsp;takeoff.
"After&nbsp;detailed analysis on major parts of&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea's&nbsp;space&nbsp;launch&nbsp;vehicle&nbsp;and&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;which were salvaged,&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean&nbsp;and&nbsp;U.S. experts have assessed that they&nbsp;had&nbsp;no&nbsp;military&nbsp;utility as a&nbsp;reconnaissance&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;at all," the&nbsp;military&nbsp;said&nbsp;in a statement.
The&nbsp;South's&nbsp;military&nbsp;said&nbsp;it&nbsp;had&nbsp;on&nbsp;Wednesday&nbsp;ended salvage operations, which began immediately&nbsp;after&nbsp;the debris splashed down off&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea's&nbsp;west coast on&nbsp;May&nbsp;31. Aircraft, the navy&nbsp;and&nbsp;deep-sea&nbsp;divers were involved in the effort.
It is the first time&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea has secured a&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;launched by the&nbsp;North,&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean&nbsp;military&nbsp;experts&nbsp;said.
The initial assessment indicated the&nbsp;reconnaissance&nbsp;capability of the equipment was poor in terms of resolution&nbsp;and&nbsp;tracing targets,&nbsp;said&nbsp;Lee Choon-geun, an expert at&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea's&nbsp;Science&nbsp;and&nbsp;Technology Policy Institute.
Yang Uk, a fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, also&nbsp;said&nbsp;"the resolution of the optical device loaded on the&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;was not suitable for&nbsp;military&nbsp;use".
South&nbsp;Korea's&nbsp;military&nbsp;tracked the&nbsp;launch&nbsp;of the space vehicle&nbsp;and&nbsp;identified a large, cylindrical piece of debris in the water just hours&nbsp;after&nbsp;the&nbsp;launch, but the object sank to the&nbsp;seabed.
It was recovered two weeks later.
North&nbsp;Korea last month made a rare candid public admission of the&nbsp;botched&nbsp;launch, saying it was the "gravest failure" but vowing to soon succeed in its orbital quest.
The nuclear-armed&nbsp;North&nbsp;has pursued a&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;launch&nbsp;programme since the 1990s&nbsp;and&nbsp;has&nbsp;said&nbsp;it would&nbsp;launch&nbsp;its first&nbsp;reconnaissance&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;to boost monitoring of U.S.&nbsp;military&nbsp;activities.
In 2012&nbsp;and&nbsp;2016,&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;launched objects that still remain in orbit. Pyongyang&nbsp;said&nbsp;they are observation&nbsp;satellites, but there has been no confirmation they were functioning or transmitting signals.
The&nbsp;May&nbsp;31&nbsp;launch&nbsp;was widely condemned by&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea, Japan,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the West as a violation of international law&nbsp;and&nbsp;U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban the&nbsp;use&nbsp;of ballistic missile technology by the&nbsp;North.
Pyongyang rejects such criticism as an infringement of its sovereign right to self-defence&nbsp;and&nbsp;space exploration.
In a key policy address in January 2021,&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea's&nbsp;leader, Kim Jong Un, pledged to develop&nbsp;military&nbsp;reconnaissance&nbsp;satellites. In recent months, Pyongyang appears to have upgraded its Sohae&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;launch&nbsp;station, potentially for another attempt.
At a ruling Workers' Party meeting in June,&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea blamed the failure on loss of thrust in the second-stage engine&nbsp;and&nbsp;criticised the "irresponsible" preparations by officials&nbsp;and&nbsp;engineers involved.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Ju-min Park; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies&nbsp;and&nbsp;Gerry Doyle)

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