By Lee Kap-soo

South Korea's military strength is the fifth strongest in the world, according to a new report. North Korea, on the other hand, was ranked 36th.

According to the '2024 Global Firepower' report released by the U.S. military power assessment organization Global Firepower (GFP) on Jan. 19, South Korea scored 0.1416 on the military power assessment index, ranking fifth among 145 countries surveyed. This is an improvement from last year's ranking (6th).

South Korea's GFP military power ranking has steadily risen to ninth in 2013 and seventh in 2014, and has remained at sixth from 2020 through last year.

North Korea's military power dropped to 36th place (0.5313) from 34th last year. North Korea was ranked 18th in 2019, but has been falling since then.

The GFP Military Strength Index is a measure of military strength, with values closer to zero indicating a stronger military. It is calculated using more than 60 individual indicators, including troop and weapon numbers, as well as economic strength, wartime mobilization capacity, and defense budget.

In the defense budget category, South Korea ranks 11th, while North Korea ranks 58th.

The top military power is the United States (0.0699), followed by Russia (0.0702), China (0.0706), and India (0.1023). In sixth and seventh place are the United Kingdom (0.1443) and Japan (0.1601).