The South Korean military has salvaged the sunken wreckage of a North Korean space launch vehicle that crashed into the Yellow Sea in a failed attempt to deliver a spy satellite into orbit 15 days ago.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Friday that the military retrieved the sunken part of the North’s Chollima-1 rocket at around 8:50 p.m. Thursday.

The salvaged wreckage, which is believed to be part of the rocket's second stage, is 15 meters long and two-point-five meters in diameter.

On May 31, the North fired what it claimed to be a new rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite, but it crashed into the sea some 200 kilometers off the island of Eocheong near Gunsan, North Jeolla Province due to abnormalities in the second stage's ignition.

About an hour and a half after North Korea fired the projectile, the South Korean military found a floating object believed to be the remains of the rocket and tied a yellow lift bag in an attempt to prevent it from sinking.

However, the wreckage sank to the sea floor 75 meters below the surface during the salvage process, at which point the military proceeded to deploy aircraft, warships and divers, including the Navy’s Cheonghaejin submarine rescue ship and salvage vessels.