Procurement: Cheap Ballistic Missiles, Shipping Extra

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July 4, 2011: American intelligence believes North Korea has exported some 500 ballistic missiles since 1987. Most (420) of these shipments occurred between 1987 and 1993. For the rest of the 1990s, there were only about 30 shipped. In the last decade there have only been about 60 exported. Most of these missiles went to Syria, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Libya, the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Yemen. Iran and Pakistan are believed to have traded missile and nuclear technology to pay some of the cost. Most of the missiles were SCUD class weapons, which cost about a million dollars each. These exports have been a major source of export income for North Korea. These exports are now banned, because of international sanctions imposed on account of North Korean nuclear weapons development.