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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| N. Korea spends 23% of GDP on Military |
| 2016-12-27 |
| North Korea is the most belligerent country in the world in terms of the percentage of GDP it spends on defense. Pyongyang's military spending accounts for a whopping 23.3 percent of GDP, according to a report released by the U.S. State Department last week. Average GDP amounted to 1.66 trillion North Korean won and average annual military spending to 386 billion won from 2004 to 2014. The figure is more than double the proportion of the next most heavily armed nation Oman (11.4 percent). Other dictatorships featured heavily in the top 10 with Saudi Arabia in third (8.5 percent), followed by South Sudan (8.4 percent), Eritrea (6.9 percent), Israel (6.5 percent), Jordan (6.3 percent), Burma (6.1 percent), Yemen (five percent) and the UAE (4.9 percent). The U.S. ranked 15th with 4.3 percent of a much vaster GDP, Russia 20th (3.8 percent), South Korea 47th (2.6 percent), China 68th (two percent), and Japan 136th (one percent). But if only money is considered, the U.S. ranked first by a long margin with $701 billion, taking up 43 percent of the world's entire global military spending and about 8.6 times North Korea's $3.51 billion. South Korea ranked 11th with US$30.1 billion. The North also ranks second in terms of the ratio of military personnel to the working population at 7.9 percent, only topped by Eritrea's 8.1 percent. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 They have a GDP?? |
| Posted by: Slats Cravigum6237 2016-12-27 21:26 |