[Central News Agency] The White House stated that the wreckage of the three high-altitude flying objects shot down by the United States from the 10th to the 12th has not yet been found due to the harsh weather, remote location, and ruggedness. foreign spy reconnaissance program.

White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby told reporters that U.S. authorities "have not seen any indication or anything that clearly indicates that these three objects are part of the People's Republic of China's spy balloon program, or clearly involve outsiders. intelligence-gathering operations."

Two of the three flying objects were shot down in the United States and one in Canada.

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Kirby said the three objects "could only be balloons associated with commercial or research entities and therefore benign".

But Kirby stressed that China was running a "well-funded, deliberate program" of espionage against the United States and other countries using high-altitude, hard-to-spot balloons.

According to the Pentagon and the White House, the work of sending people to find the wreckage and find out the truth about the three flying objects was difficult due to the harsh weather, remoteness and steep terrain.

"We recognize that it may take some time to find where the wreckage fell and retrieve it," Kirby said.

A Chinese reconnaissance balloon invaded US airspace on January 28, was shot down by the US on January 4, and fell into the sea.

The incident has strained relations between Washington and Beijing and led to the postponement of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

A "significant" portion of a Chinese spy balloon has been recovered from a depth of about 50 feet off the coast of South Carolina, U.S. defense officials said yesterday.

CNN reported that a salvage ship equipped with a crane arrived in the area on the 10th and began to lift the wreckage, including the payload and electronic equipment under the reconnaissance balloon, from the sea floor as weather conditions permitted.

The equipment carried by the Chinese reconnaissance balloon weighs about 907 kilograms and is about the size of three school buses.

The sensitive parts will be sent to the FBI for further investigation, U.S. defense officials said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said workers recovered a considerable amount of debris from the Chinese spy balloon.

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