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IPFS News Link • Foreign Policy

North Korea’s $850 million rocket failure

• CNN.com business producer, Kevin Voigt
The cost of Friday’s failed rocket launch by North Korea is estimated by South Korean intelligence officials at $850 million – nearly enough to feed about 80% of the population of the impoverished nation for a year.

The launch site cost $400 million and the rocket and payload cost an additional $450 million, a military official told Yonhap, South Korea’s state-affiliated news agency. Yonhap says the cash could feed 19 million for a year. North Korea has a population of 24.3 million in 2010, according to the World Bank.

"North Korea has suffered a deficit of 400,000 tons of food every year. So, the money could resolve the problem of food shortages for six years," the official said.