In its annual report for this year, the U.S.-based think tank evaluated 145 countries to assess their "potential war-making capability across land, sea, and air, fought by conventional means."
South Korea maintained fifth place in the ranking with a power index score of 0.1656. First included in the top 10 at 7th place in 2011, the country climbed to 6th in 2020 and further to 5th place last year.
Meanwhile, North Korea's score was 0.6016, staying in 34th place, up two notches from last year. But the renegade country's ranking has steadily declined since 2019, when it was ranked 18th.
The GFP annually evaluates military strength of each country based on various factors such as "manpower, equipment, natural resources, finances, and geography" as well as defense budgets. However, asymmetric capabilities like nuclear weapons are excluded with comparisons largely based on the quantity of key assets such as fighter jets and tanks.
The U.S. retained the top spot with a score of 0.0744, followed by Russia (0.0788), China (0.0788), and India (0.1184). Also included in the top ten were the U.K. (0.1785), France (0.1878), and Japan (0.1839).
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