Korean People's Army refers to the armed personnel of the military of North Korea.
According to western estimates, North Korea has the fifth-largest military in the world, with the largest percentage of civilians enlisted (49.03 active troops per thousand citizens). The North has an estimated 1.08 million armed personnel, compared to about 686,000 South Korean troops (and 4.5 million paramilitary forces) plus 17,000 US troops in South Korea. Military spending is estimated at 20%-25% of GNP, which would mean that the DPRK spends the largest proportion of its GNP on its military in the world. Roughly 20% of North Korean men between the ages of 17 and 54 serve in the regular armed forces. As a result, DPRK forces are thought to have a substantial numerical advantage over the South (as high as 3 to 1) in several key categories of offensive weapons like tanks, long-range artillery, and Armored personnel carriers. However, despite this numerical superiority, much of North Korea's land arsenal is considerably inferior when compared with the South's more modern and capable weapons systems.[[Citing sources citation needed]] South Korea is also engaged in a military alliance with the United States for protection, with several units of the United States armed forces stationed in South Korea.
The North has perhaps the world's second-largest special operations force (55,000), designed for insertion behind enemy lines in wartime. While the North has a relatively impressive fleet of submarines, its surface fleet has a very limited capability. Its air force has twice the number of aircraft as the South, but except for a few advanced fighters (about 20 MiG-29s), the North's air force is obsolete. The North, like the South, deploys the bulk of its forces well forward, within 100 miles of the Korean DMZ, to include 700,000 troops, 8,000 artillery systems, and 2,000 tanks. Several North Korean military tunnels under the DMZ were discovered in the 1970s.
In 1953, the Military Armistice Commission (MAC) was created to oversee and enforce the terms of the armistice. The Neutral Nation Supervisory Committee (NNSC), originally made up of delegations from Poland and Czechoslovakia on the North Korean-Chinese People's Volunteers side, and Sweden and Switzerland on the United Nations side, monitored the activities of the MAC.
North Korea is technically still at war with South Korea. In recent years, North Korea has sought to dismantle the MAC in a push for a new peace mechanism on the peninsula. In April 1994, it declared the MAC void and withdrew its representatives. Prior to this, it had effectively ended the functions of the NNSC.
Also over the last several years, the North has allegedly moved even more of its rear-echelon troops to hardened bunkers closer to the DMZ. Given the proximity of Seoul to the DMZ (some 25 miles), South Korean and United States forces are likely to have little warning of any attack. The United States and South Korea continue to state that the U.S. troop presence remains an effective deterrent.
