Military profile
North Korea Military Strength
North Korea ranks #34 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 1,200,000 active personnel.
North Korea armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 1,200,000#4 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 600,000#7 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 200,000#12 of 145
- Army personnel
- 850,000#5 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 110,000#5 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 60,000#10 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 947#11 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 458#5 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 114#5 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 205#21 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 20#34 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 6,645#2 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 5,000#2 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 5,000#2 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 2,920#3 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 0#15 of 113
- Frigates
- 1#49 of 113
- Corvettes
- 4#26 of 113
- Submarines
- 35#4 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 169#3 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 1#49 of 113
Finance
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $38.5 billion#117 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
North Korea military spending 2015–2018
Military spending of North Korea grew by 84% between 2015 and 2018, from $870 million to $1.6 billion (current US dollars).
Armed forces of North Korea
Branches and forces
Korean People's Army (KPA): KPA Ground Forces, KPA Navy, KPA Air Force and Air Defense Forces, KPA Strategic Forces (missile forces), KPA Special Forces (special operations forces); Security Guard Command (aka Bodyguard Command); Military Security Command Ministry of Social Security (formerly Ministry of Public Security): Border Guard General Bureau, civil security forces; Ministry of State Security: internal security, investigations (2025)
Personnel
estimates vary; as many as 1.3 million active-duty Korean People's Army (2025)
Service age and conscription
compulsory military service for men (17-30 years of age) and women (17-23 years of age); service obligation is reportedly up to 10 years for men and up to 7 years for women (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the KPA is equipped with older weapon systems acquired from China, Russia, and the former Soviet Union, as well as some domestically produced armaments; North Korea produces an array of military hardware, including armored vehicles, artillery, munitions, naval vessels, and some advanced weapons systems, such as cruise and ballistic missiles; most are copies or upgrades of older foreign supplied equipment (2025)
Deployments abroad
estimated 10-12,000 Russia (2025)
Good to know
the Korean People's Army (KPA) is one of the World’s largest military forces; founded in 1948, the KPA’s primary responsibilities are national defense and protection of the Kim regime; it also provides support to domestic economic projects such as agriculture production and infrastructure construction; North Korea views South Korea and the US as its primary external threats and Russia as its closest security partner in addition to the invasion of South Korea and the subsequent Korean War (1950-53), North Korea from the 1960s to the 1980s launched a number of military and subversive actions against South Korea; including skirmishes along the DMZ, overt attempts to assassinate South Korean leaders, kidnappings, the bombing of an airliner, and a failed effort in 1968 to foment an insurrection and conduct a guerrilla war in the South with more than 100 seaborne commandos; from the 1990s until 2010, the North lost two submarines and a semi-submersible boat attempting to insert infiltrators into the South (1996, 1998) and provoked several engagements in the Northwest Islands area along the disputed Northern Limit Line (NLL), including naval skirmishes between patrol boats in 1999 and 2002, the torpedoing and sinking of a South Korean Navy corvette in 2010, and the bombardment of a South Korean military installation on Yeonpyeong Island, also in 2010; since 2010, further minor incidents continue to occur periodically along the DMZ, where both the KPA and the South Korean military maintain large numbers of troops North Korea also has a history of provocative regional military actions and posturing that are of major concern to the international community, including: proliferation of military-related items; ballistic and cruise missile development and testing; weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs including tests of nuclear devices in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016, and 2017; and large conventional armed forces (2025)
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
North Korea compared with its neighbours
| Country | Strength rank | Military spending |
|---|---|---|
| North Korea | #34 | — |
 China | #3 | $335.5 billion |
 South Korea | #6 | $47.8 billion |
 Russia | #2 | $190.4 billion |