Most Powerful Military Forces in Southern and Eastern Asia

North Korea

While North Korea’s not exactly forthcoming with the details of its military might, choosing instead to exaggerate its prowess, experts have been able to estimate (thanks to satellite imagery and spy work) this hermit kingdom’s military might – just in case it decides to spontaneously start a war. The Democratic Republic of North Korea’s ranked 18th world wide in terms of military power. It has about 1,280,000 active personnel and more than 6 million in reserve, making it the second largest standing army in East Asia.

Its aircraft strength is 956 fighter and attack crafts, 967 naval assets (none of which are aircraft carriers or destroyers). It shines more on land, where it has an estimated 5000 rocket projectors (the most in the world, and hence Trump’s Rocketman nickname), 10,000 armored tanks and 6,000 combat tanks.

credit: Wikipedia
In terms of military spending, North Korea devotes more of its GDP (between one-fifth and one-quarter) to the military than perhaps any other country in the world. The total budget’s estimated to be $10 billion, most of it slated to go into their nuclear program.

North Korea’s unsurprisingly quiet on the South China Sea dispute since it relies on China to smuggle oil from the sea. It, however, focuses its more than 200,000 special operation force to bug its neighbor to the south. They may be starving, but they’re still powerful enough to inflict serious damages if attacked.