North Korea and US Military and Nuclear Capability

Nukewatch chart by Kelly Lundeen

MILITARY & NUCLEAR CAPABILITY	NORTH KOREA	UNITED STATES
Active duty military personnel [1]	700,000	1.4 million
Military personnel near other state	0 [2]	28,500 in S. Korea; 50,000 in Japan
Military budget	$7.5 billion[3]	$587.8 billion[3] -to- $850 billion [4]
Number of nuclear warheads	0 confirmed, maybe 10 [5]	4,000 to 4,480 [6]
Nuclear weapon delivery systems [7]	0	450 missiles, 165 heavy bombers, [8] 12 Trident subs (1,900 total)
Number of annual military trainings carried out along the other’s borders	0 [14]	2 (South Korea)
Range of usable missiles	< 2,800 miles [9]	8,000 miles [10]
Verbal threats of nuclear strike?	Lots	Lots
Pledge of “no first use” of nuclear weapons	Yes [11] (May 7, 2016)	No
Number of ballistic missile tests in 2017	9 [12]	6 [10, 12]
Number of ICBM tests in 2017 [13]	0	6 [10, 12]
Previous nuclear weapons attacks	0	2
Current shooting wars initiated	0	7: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya
Civilians killed in conflicts since 2015	0 [15]	3,800-5,800 [16, 17]

Notes

[1] Global Fire Power.com, 2016

[2] For a relative comparison, consider North Korean troops in Mexico or Cuba

[4] War Resisters League, “Where your income tax money really goes,” March 2017

[6] Fed. Of Am. Scientists, “Status of World Nuclear Forces,” Apr. 4, 2017; and Bulletin of Atomic the Scientists, Dec. 14, 2016

[7] A delivery system is needed to get a warhead to its target.

[9] The Atlantic, May 14, 2017

[11] CNN, May 8, 2016; VOAnews.com, May 7, 2017

[12] ABC News, May 30, 2017

[13] An ICBM would be capable of reaching the other country’s territory.

[14] For a relative comparison, in Canada or Mexico

[15] Also, zero combatants were killed.

[16] Bureau of Investigative Journalism, May 31, 2017 (This includes coalition forces.)

[17] Airwars.com, Jan. 19, 2017.