North Korea allegedly earned over US$1 billion a year exporting more than 1,000 Scud missiles to the Middle East. Although most believed North Korea's earnings from the missile trade ranged around the $500 million level, a private American organization, the Claremont Institute, says North Korea may bring in foreign currency valued at about $1.5 billion a year.
The institute says the North has expanded its missile trade with states such as Iran and Syria providing technology related to its intercontinental ballistic missile, the Taepodong-2.
Which is why a successful flight test of the TD2 is important. It's all about the Benjamins ... | UN Security Council resolutions prohibit Pyongyang from engaging in missile-related activities, and the North may face further economic sanctions if it is proven to have violated these resolutions.
That prospect clearly has rattled the Norks ... | The institute claims Pyongyang also helped build a Syrian nuclear reactor bombed by Israeli jets in 2007 and has received nuclear weapons technology from Pakistan in exchange for providing missiles. |