Minister says money for launch better spent feeding N. Koreans

SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's unification minister said Monday that North Korea should have fed its people if it had the money to launch a rocket.

"The rocket launch must have been a tremendous cost for North Korea, and if the
money went to feeding its hungry people it would have been enough to fill North
Korean stomachs," Hyun In-taek said at a meeting of the National Assembly's
foreign affairs, trade and unification committee.
Hyun did not give his estimate of the North Korean cost for Sunday's launch. The
North announced it orbited a communications satellite, Kwangmyongsong-2, by a
three-stage rocket, while outside monitors say it fell into the Pacific Ocean.
"Our government deeply regrets it," Hyun said. "I suspect the money that could
have gone to food all went to the rocket launch."
There is no official data on the launch cost, but a state-run think tank in Seoul
estimated it could be between US$300 million to $500 million. The Institute for
National Security Strategy, an arm of the National Intelligence Service, produced
the estimate based on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's previous remarks to Seoul
officials that his country's first satellite launch in 1998 cost between $200
million and $300 million.
South Korea expects the North's food supply will fall short by more than one
million tons for its population of 24 million this year. North Korea's frail
economy accounted for only 2.8 percent of South Korea's in terms of gross
national income in 2007, according to South Korea's central bank.