N. Korea spends $170 million on 2-day missile launch

North Korea has poured up to 170 million U.S. dollars into launching missiles for the past two days. Considering that North Korea’s export volume to China in September stood only at 14.2 million dollars, it means the country blew its annual amount of export in just two days.

“A short-range missile costs between $2 million and $3 million a shot,” said Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst of the U.S. think tank RAND Corporation, adding that the North might have spent 50 to 75 million dollars on the 25 missiles fired on the day. Annually, North Korea imported 70 million dollars worth of rice from China until 2020. The figure tells us that it exhausted a one-year budget for rice on a day for provocations.

Regarding the expenses of North Korea’s missile launch, the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses estimated that it might cost 20 to 30 million dollars to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), 10 to 15 million dollars for an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), and 3 to 5 million dollars for a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) and a cruise missile. As the North fired an ICBM and two SRBMs on Thursday, it figures that the country spent up to 170 million dollars for two days.


weappon@donga.com