By Soo-hyang Choi and Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) -&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;has recovered from the sea&nbsp;part&nbsp;of a&nbsp;rocket&nbsp;used&nbsp;in North&nbsp;Korea's&nbsp;failed&nbsp;attempt to&nbsp;launch&nbsp;its first military&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;last month, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Friday.
The announcement came about two weeks after North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;unsuccessfully tried to&nbsp;launch&nbsp;its first spy&nbsp;satellite, with the booster and payload plunging into the sea.
The debris was salvaged on Thursday evening from the seabed about 75 metres (246 feet) below the surface off the west coast, the military said, adding that the search continued for additional objects from what the North said was a space&nbsp;launch&nbsp;vehicle.
South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;began retrieving debris shortly after the&nbsp;launch, and had already recovered smaller&nbsp;parts. But the operation had faced difficulties&nbsp;partly because of a strong tide and bad visibility, prompting the military to dispatch 10 vessels and dozens of deep-sea divers.
Photographs released by the Joint Chiefs of Staff showed a large cylindrical object marked "Chonma," meaning a winged horse in&nbsp;Korean. North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;had said the&nbsp;rocket&nbsp;was named "Chollima-1."
"The salvaged object will be thoroughly analysed in cooperation with the United States," it said in a statement.
South&nbsp;Korea's Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup had said that the debris appeared to be the second stage of the&nbsp;rocket, and that the military would keep looking for the payload and the third stage.
Lee Choon-geun, a honorary research fellow at&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea's Science and Technology Policy Institute, said the newly retrieved object appeared to be a fuel tank.
If the military finds an engine attached to the tank, it could help discover some features of North&nbsp;Korea's new&nbsp;rocket&nbsp;engine, which is designed to produce greater thrust at higher altitudes, he said.
Chang Young-keun, a professor at&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;Aerospace University, said the debris would also offer hints at the technical progress made by North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;on its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capability and whether it had procured any components overseas in a potential breach of sanctions.
"This is important data," Chang said.
South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;has said Chinese warships had also conducted salvage operations in waters where the North&nbsp;Korean&nbsp;rocket&nbsp;crashed, but it was not immediately clear whether the Chinese military was continuing its search.
Seoul and Washington have condemned the&nbsp;launch&nbsp;as a provocation and violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning the&nbsp;North's&nbsp;use of ballistic missile technology.
Pyongyang said it was exercising its right to space development to counter what it described as U.S. "aggression" and vowed to stage another&nbsp;launch&nbsp;soon.
On Friday, the U.S. guided-missile submarine USS Michigan arrived in&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;for the first time since 2017 for joint special warfare exercises aimed at improving responses to North&nbsp;Korean threats, the&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean navy said.
The submarine's dispatch was seen as a show of force against North&nbsp;Korea, which fired two short-range missiles off its east coast on Thursday and warned of an "inevitable" response to&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea-U.S. military drills.
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(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi; Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Ju-min Park; Editing by Ed Davies and Gerry Doyle)

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South Korea recovers part of rocket used in North's failed satellite launch