[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] How the US Assesses South and North Korea's Military Strength

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yang Nak-gyu] Our military's military strength has been found to be superior to that of the North Korean army. Although the North Korean army has a larger military scale than our military, it is understood to lag behind in economic power capable of waging war.

According to the 2019 national military power rankings compiled by the U.S. military power assessment specialist organization 'Global Firepower' (GFP) on the 15th, last year our military's military power index was 0.1761, ranking 7th out of 137 countries, while North Korea was 0.3274, ranking 18th.

GFP's military power index means stronger as it approaches 0, and it is calculated by including not only the number of troops and weapons but also economic power and manpower that can be mobilized in wartime. The active-duty troops that North Korea can immediately deploy in wartime are 1.28 million, which is 5% of the total population, about twice the 625,000 troops of our military. This is the fourth largest scale after China, India, and the United States. Our military surpassed North Korea in air force power, including attack helicopters, but North Korea has more army and navy weapons than our military.

However, the military threat from North Korea remains. The military power of North Korea, as identified by our military, maintains a quantitative superiority.

As of the end of last year, the peacetime troop size of South and North Korea was about 599,000 for the Republic of Korea Armed Forces and about 1.28 million for the North Korean army. North Korean special warfare troops number about 200,000. The North Korean army includes about 10,000 strategic forces operating nuclear and missile power. The number of independent brigades capable of being deployed for surprise independent operations without support from higher units such as artillery, engineering, and aviation brigades organized at the corps level or higher was 131 for the North Korean army and 31 for the Republic of Korea Armed Forces, showing a large difference.

According to the '2018 Defense White Paper,' North Korea possesses about 50 kg of plutonium capable of making nuclear weapons and a significant amount of highly enriched uranium (HEU). In addition, it has developed 14 types of missiles, including short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM), medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM), intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM), and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). Among North Korea's conventional forces, the performance of multiple rocket launchers mainly deployed targeting the Seoul metropolitan area has improved.

They have also built whale-class (over 2,500 tons) submarines equipped with submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) capable of surprise attacks at sea. They produce biological weapons such as anthrax, smallpox, and plague on their own and possess 2,500 to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons.