Korea's conventional military strength ranked fifth in the world for the third straight year, following the United States, Russia, China and India.

On the 27th, according to the recently released "2026 military strength rankings" by Global Firepower (GFP), a military strength assessment agency, Korea ranked fifth (0.1642 points) among 145 countries in those surveyed.

On the 2nd in an operational area in Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon, the Army 2nd Artillery Brigade's Taeyang Artillery Battalion conducts K9 self-propelled howitzer live-fire to check its New Year firepower combat readiness. /Courtesy of Yonhap News

Korea's GFP military strength ranking steadily climbed from ninth in 2013, to seventh in 2014, and sixth in 2020. Since 2024, it has held fifth.

This year, Korea received high marks in categories such as towed artillery power, self-propelled artillery power, frigate strength and reserve forces.

North Korea ranked 31st, up three spots from last year (34th). After rising to 18th in 2019, North Korea's ranking continued to fall to 36th in 2024, then rebounded over the past two years.

At the top in conventional military strength were the United States (1st), Russia (2nd), China (3rd) and India (4th), with no change in the rankings for roughly 20 years since 2006.

The closer a country's GFP military strength index is to 0, the stronger its military. It is calculated using more than 60 individual indicators, including personnel and weapon counts as well as economic power, wartime mobilizable manpower and defense budget.

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