Measure
Snapshot

North Korea

Ranked 17 of 27 for comprehensive power, with an overall score of 12.8 out of 100.

Gained 1.5 points (+13% change) in overall score in 2025.

Analysis

North Korea is a middle power in Asia.

North Korea’s overall power score rose by 1.5 points in 2025, the largest increase of any Asia Power Index country.

North Korea’s strongest measures are military capability and resilience. Its large increases in scores and ranks for both are a result of improvements to its nuclear deterrent capabilities.

North Korea’s rank for economic relationships and cultural influence dropped one position to last place, with the country now ranking last for three influence measures — economic relationships, cultural influence, and diplomatic influence.

North Korea exerts less influence in the region than expected given its available resources, as indicated by the country's large negative Power Gap score, which grew by 0.8 points in 2025, to its largest ever gap.

Read more analysis in the Key Findings report. Explore further results in the Scores section.

Annual changes

+5.3Resilience +3.8Militarycapability +1.5Defencenetworks +1.3Futureresources +0.5Economicrelationships —Culturalinfluence —Economiccapability −1.4Diplomaticinfluence

Bilateral Influence

Bilateral trade, current dollars (2024)

Countries that influence North Korea

Globally, which countries does North Korea do most of its trade with?

China 69.4%

Papua New Guinea 19.2%

Trinidad and Tobago 4.6%

Gabon 1.0%

Peru 0.9%

Countries influenced by North Korea

Which countries in the region rely most on trade with North Korea?

Papua New Guinea 2.2%

China < 0.1%

Mongolia < 0.1%

Indonesia < 0.1%

View North Korea’s regional influence on the Network Power map

Scores

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