North Korea ranks 31st in military strength, ROK is 5th... Only top-five power without nuclear weapons

[The Financial News] The conventional military strength of the Republic of Korea (ROK) has ranked fifth among 145 countries worldwide for the third consecutive year.
On the 27th, Global Firepower (GFP), a U.S.-based outlet specializing in military strength assessments, stated in its "2026 Military Strength Ranking" report that "the ROK is one of the world’s top five military powers in the Global Firepower Index (GFP Index)."
Since 2005, GFP has quantified and published military strength using more than 60 indicators, including troop numbers, defense budgets, and weapons inventories. Asymmetric capabilities such as nuclear weapons are excluded from its calculations. The rankings are based mainly on the quantity and quality of traditional conventional assets, such as fighter jets and tanks.

Among the 145 countries assessed by GFP, the ROK’s Power Index (PwrIndx) score was 0.1642. A perfect score on this index is 0.0000, and the closer a country’s score is to zero, the stronger its military is considered. The United States of America (U.S.) ranked first with 0.0741, followed by Russia at 0.0791, China at 0.0919, and the Republic of India at 0.1346.
The ROK scored highly in artillery power, including self-propelled and towed guns, as well as in frigate capabilities and the large size of its reserve forces. Notably, among the top five countries, the ROK is the only one that does not possess nuclear weapons, a point that drew particular attention.
Following the ROK, France (0.1798), Japan (0.1876), and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) (0.1881) ranked sixth to eighth, respectively. North Korea’s military strength was assessed at 0.5933, placing it 31st, three spots higher than last year.

The ROK first climbed to fifth place in 2024 and has maintained that position for three consecutive years.
North Korea rose as high as 18th in 2019 but then entered a downward trend. Its ranking has rebounded for two straight years, reaching 31st this year. GFP explained that most of North Korea’s official military data is not disclosed, and the size of its equipment and forces is estimated based on available information.
y27k@fnnews.com Seo Yoon-kyung Reporter