South Korea Ranked 6th in Military Strength, North Korea 28th
South Korea might rank higher than North Korea, but South Korea has spread their defense spending to include capabilities not needed to counter North Korea. Meanwhile the Kim regime is focused their military solely on war with South Korea:
South Korea has ranked sixth in global military strength.
According to 2021 list from the U.S. ranking agency Global Firepower, South Korea ranks sixth out of 138 countries, the same as last year, with a PowerIndex score of zero-point-1621.
North Korea dropped three slots from 25th to 28th this year.
The GFP ranking is based on each nation’s potential war-making capability across land, sea and air fought by conventional means. It utilizes over 50 individual factors to determine a PowerIndex score with categories ranging from military might and financials to logistical capability and geography.
KBS World Radio
You can read more at the link.
South Korean military?!?!?! Not from what I have seen.
Parasite army wants it more and has nothing to lose in a fight.
The Iraq Army was #4 in the World before Desert Storm.
Ever since Kim Young-sam vowed to ‘scold’ the Japanese, the Korean military has matched what the Japanese SDF has bought. (Trying telling them to the local military experts, and you will get a vigorous denial, go figure)
At least under Park Chung Hee, the Korean military was focused on North Korea and bought military equipment that it could sustain and made sense.
Now, I’m not sure if the Korean military can sustain half the equipment they have bought over the past twenty years or so.
One of the examples is the planned aircraft carrier. It seems that the MND and Navy is considering hiring civilians to man the aircraft carrier, because of a lack of sailors who can ‘expertly’ man the ship.
In a world gone mad, why should South Korea be exempt?
Like the sailors on those US Navy ships that managed to collide with supertankers, the South Korean draftees will be too busy on their mobile devices to even notice the wormies have invaded until they’re being shot.
And for the love of God, fix it before they prove me right!
A civilian run aircraft carrier?
Brilliant! If we make high unemployment by shutting down businesses and killing jobs, we can get people to work cheaply and with few benefits.
Then we give profitable administration contracts to large Korean companies, which, due to international ownership of stock, will globalize the high profits to insure they don’t stay in Korea.
An completely unneeded aircraft carrier is a great way to privatize profit and socialize expense in yet another national public-to-globalized private wealth transfer.
Korean think big! And globalists think bigger!
Put those two together, and you have a winning team for failure that only a nationalist can beat!
“A civilian run aircraft carrier?”
That’s the claim made by all the right-wing netoyou trolls in Yahoo Japan and 5CH Japan, which TOK is probably one of them. Over there, they spend 24X7 on bashing South Korea. It’s really sad, the amount of time they spend time on masturbating. This website is also often referenced to prove all the points made by the superior race of the Japanese people, and how all the countries around the world is hating on South Korea. It’s amusing really, but unfortunately the truth. Currently living in Japan, and seeing this phenomenon is fascinating to be sure.
Sugoi Japan!, glad I got your attention.
Two things;
1. I’m not Japanese.
2. Although the aircraft carrier will most probably be not civilian run, civilians will be part of its crew. And the ‘netoyou trolls’ aren’t the ones making the claims. It is in the newspapers here. Check out the link below;
http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=202012301828001&code=910302
Just in case, you couldn’t catch it in the article here it is;
‘약 2조원이 투입되며 비전투요원인 민간인을 포함해 430명이 탑승한다’
Translated it means that KRW 2 trillion(USD 2 billion) will be invested in the carrier and it will have a crew of 430 including civilians.
TOK, that only proves my point. Japanese net right spend hours and hours, sifting through Korean news, like stalkers. So that they can use them as ammo. Same thing here.
Nowhere in that article mentions what you claim, that they’re going to hire civilians because they can’t find enough sailors. And nowhere in that article mentions the number of civilians. If they’re going to hire 2 or 3 civilians out of the 430 crew members, it doesn’t make much difference.
It’s really sad that China can’t come up with higher quality trolls…
Ah Sugoi-san. True nowhere in the article mentions the number of civilians. So it could be as you say two or three or maybe hundred. You also forgot to consider one important thing.
It is important to note that the ROKN is even considering putting civilians on a capital warship.
In the history of the ROKN, civilians have never been part of the crew of a surface combatant. As for other countries’ combat navies , with the exception of the MSC and the RFA, civilians are never part of the regular crew.
Then why all of a sudden, the ROKN decide to put civilians as crew of a major capital ship?
with an 18 month enlistment approved for the Korean military, likely the average infantry man will know how to fire his weapon….let alone a sailor operate a carrier.
All this is good fun… but the real question is:
Why does South Korea need an aircraft carrier?
Pros:
– South Korea can now pretend to project power as long as an enemy doesn’t have a torpedo (like last time)
– the carrier will seldom be more than 15 minutes by air away from an actual airport so planes don’t have to be stored in humidity and salt mist until they turn into piles of powdered aluminum oxide.
– Korens have something completely non-productive to feel proud of for their tax money instead of a wider highway, a leading space program, or a world-class no spitting in public campaign
Cons:
– one less job opening for an airport manager
– foreigners have to endure 6 months to a year of “Korean Top Gun” comparisons
But CH! They will need a carrier task group to defend the Liancourt Rocks!!!
Carrier will probably be ready to launch in 2050. Just in time for Fatty IV’s coming out party.
CH….oh dear god you know the Korean will make some cheesy top gun knock off….
CH, why does South Korea need an aircraft carrier? Because North Korea isn’t the only enemy of South Korea, that’s why. South Korea have serious border disputes with both China and Japan. Now I get it that it’s not in the best interest of the US to see South Korea and Japan to get in a war of words. But this is where the national interests of the US and South Korea parts. It is up to South Korea to defend its national interests, especially at this time when the US is becoming more and more unreliable for South Korea. United States doesn’t have a border dispute with Japan, and Japan’s national interests aligns with the US, so you’re going to overlook any of Japan’s faults, while you criticize Korea which refuses to agree with the US 100% on everything. You think the war between South Korea and Japan is unlikely? Think again. Read this 1978 NYT article.
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/06/15/archives/japansouth-korea-oil-treaty-ratified-oil-presence-confirmed-terms.html
The root of the coming naval war between SK and Japan is that 1978 agreement between Korea and Japan to jointly develop the untapped area for oil and natural gas which reportedly has 10 times the deposit of Saudi Arabia. At that time, Korea claimed that area based on the continental shelf rule. Japan objected, so South Korea signed the agreement. Wind forward 43 years to today, and that 50 year agreement comes to an end in 2028.
Japan started to break their promise in 1982, when the new international law of 200 mile EEZ rule went into effect – which now makes that area into Japanese EEZ based on the 200 miles EEZ rule. Japan decided not to scrap the international agreement outright and make itself look like a dick. They just played dumb, and claimed that the area had no economic benefits and refused to jointly investigate for oil deposits. Because Japan knows time is on their side, and when the agreement expires in 7 years, Japan can take all the natural resources for themselves.
Now this is where China enters, as they’ve been encroaching in the same area, sipping off all the oil while Japan and South Korea is on the sidelines. South Korea has been trying to get Japan to play ball, but Japan has refused. Only since Moon Jae-in administration came to power, has South Korea suddenly realize what game Japan is trying to pull here with all their delaying tactics. South Korea is not planning any time soon, to let Japan just drill all the oil, starting in 2028. South Korea has let Japan know that South Korea will soon start the exploration and development of the area, whether Japan likes it or now. If Japan thinks they can get away with this on the backs of the now expired international agreement that they refused to fulfill, then they are seriously miscalculating. The encroaching China is another problem as they have been sipping off all the gas with straw, but increasingly day by day, their claims and activity has increased. China probably have their own eyes on the area and they are also a threat.
This is why South Korea needs a blue water navy, to protect its national interests, to not defend South Korea’s resources, but also to keep the trade lanes to Southeast Asia and Middle East open at a time when the US economy is collapsing and its internally weak. Iran has just kidnapped a South Korean ship, and it is increasingly becoming critical for South Korea to start protecting South Korean ships that carry vital Middle East energy resources back to South Korea.
@Korean Man, very interesting read from that old NY Times article.
In regards to the Iranian situations, having an aircraft carrier would not have done anything to change what happened. South Korea cannot project power with the aircraft carrier without all the enablers that go with a carrier fleet. Unless South Korea invests in all the enablers to make a real carrier fleet it is a sitting duck away from the peninsula against real threats like China or Iran unless they integrate it with a US fleet.
As far as defending Dokdo, it can be defended from the peninsula and the new airfield they are building on Ulleungdo. Plus the Japanese are not going to attack Dokdo anyway and every Korean deep down know this.
The best thing this carrier could be used for is responding to natural disasters in the region if they equip it with enough helicopters.
@GIKorea. Like the ROKS Dokdo, the new carrier will be nothing more than a show off boat for the ROK Navy.
Gi Korea, I didn’t mention anything about Dokdo. The area rich in natural resources which both Korea and Japan agreed upon is in the South China Sea. You know the area near the Senkakou that both China and Japan are fighting over? There’s a good reason why they are fighting over that island
Korea needs a strong navy to ensure Japan’s greed doesn’t mean they take all the oil for themselves. In 1978 Korea was willing to share the wealth with Japan but Japan didn’t want to share.
Look up the term 7 광구. Its a huge issue in Korea that the US is pretending to not exist.
https://news.joins.com/article/23793906
Considering what an offshore oil field would have done for both Korea and Japan, I’m surprised that the two countries didn’t actively drill and exploit the resources in question.
As for the blue water navy, the reason for that the ROKN is actively pursuing it is because
1. They’ve wanted it all along(It will surely make an admiral’s day to see
big ships sailing by)
2. Kim Yongsam’s vow to ‘scold’ Japan and his subsequent instruction to the
armed forces to get the capability to do that
3. Related to point no.1, when South Korea went to RIMPAC for the first time
they sent two Ulsan class frigates, which were more suited to littoral warfare
around the peninsula and lacked things that are found on bigger ships such
as helicopters. The ROKN felt that the other navies were looking down on them
and later vowed to build and send bigger ships(which they eventually did)
So, the blue water navy is not driven by Korean security interests but is more of a
prestige project and driven by misguided a nationalistic inferiority complex.
TOk the RIMPAC exercises saw a fair number of US ships getting sunk by South Korean diesel subs. The US was never able to find the Korean subs. No need for inferiority complex. It’s never bad to have a military that can defend against not just one enemy but all the enemies. Korea tried for decades to develop the area and share in the wealth but Japan decided to wait it out until 2028 when the joint agreement ends. Then they can claim the 200 mile EEZ rule and take all the resources of oil and natural gas for themselves. The stake is worth trillions
Korea is not just building a carrier. Its building an entire carrier fleet around the carrier. So I don’t understand why you think South Korea is building a carrier on it’s own as a sitting duck.
@Korean Man. The submarine kills were achieved during Rimpac 98. I was referring to the first Rimpac that the ROKN participated which was Rimpac 90.
Beijing boy still kinda wordy. Needs to learn clear, concise, technical communication. And probably needs better internet search skills as the history of carrier operations is already well documented.
One carrier is not a capability, is a sideshow freak like the bearded lady. At least three are needed to cover home, cover abroad, and have one being refitted/refueled/repaired.
If South Korea was serious about standing up to the PRC, they’d have two or more THAAD sides. And add snother every time China complained.
This is all about having a runt complex. And it’s frankly a disease of affluence.