N. Korea Ranks First In World’s Top Military Spenders List

North Korea has topped the list of world’s largest military spender relative to its gross domestic product (GDP) between 2004-2014, the US State Department report said Thursday.

According to State Department’s ‘World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers 2016’ report, the North's military expenditures accounts for 23.3 percent of country’s GDP of $15 billion during that period. It I averaged about US$3.5 billion a year.

Oman is second on the list, spending 11.4 percent of its GDP on the military, followed by Saudi Arabia with 8.6 percent, South Sudan with 8.4 percent and the African nation of Eritrea with 6.9 percent.

Among the major military powerhouses, the U.S. was ranked 15th at four-point-three percent, followed by Russia at 20th with three-point-eight percent and the U.K. at 53rd with two-point-three percent. China was 68th with two percent and Japan 136th with one percent. 

South Korea spent two-point-six percent of its GDP on the military budget, placing it at 47th.