Most Powerful Military Forces in Southern and Eastern Asia

South Korea

When you’re sharing a boundary with “Rocketman” to the north and have a not-so-subtle Chinese aggressor close by, no one needs to tell you to up your military game. South Korea did this by hiking up its 2019 military budget to the highest (8.2% increase, from $39 billion to $42 billion) since 2008 – when it had made steady increments of 5.7%.

While this budget increase comes on the heels of waning diplomatic efforts between Trump and Kim Jong-un, both North and South Korea have always had their fair share of disputes, seeing as they hold the most demilitarized zone in the world.

credit: Wikipedia
To keep its citizens safe, South Korea has 21-month mandatory military service, with 625,000 active personnel and 5,202,250 in reserve. It also has a special forces unit called the special warfare command. A ton of South Korea’s budget goes into its airpower, with about 1614 aircraft (ranked 5th in the world), and its naval assets – made up of 166 destroyers, aircraft carriers, submarines, and other naval assets.

As a nuclear-free country with a very nuclear ambitious neighbor, South Korea has the largest overseas US base (Camp Humphrey) where joint “provocative” military exercises are conducted twice yearly – to keep Rocketman on his toes.