The US spends more on its military than most NATO countries. Donald Trump even stated that he wouldn't protect NATO members that don't meet their quotas if they are attacked. NATO countries have to spend no less than 2 percent of their total revenue on the military but most do not adhere to this.
Just a few spend more than that, and the U.S. is one of them, but we can see that a small country like North Korea spends much more than America on its military in terms of percentage. The percentage of its Gross National Product that goes to the Military Budget is more than six times higher.
The small Asian country has been a rival of America for many decades. The Pyongyang regime also has a huge number of people in the military -- one of the reasons for underdevelopment in the regime of Kim Jong-un.
America and North Korea: 3.3% vs 22% of the economy
The US military budget was equal to 3.3 percent of the US economy in 2016. This is relatively high compared with other countries, mainly when compared with Western nations. But this is much less than the percentage that the North Korean military take of the national economy, the Pyongyang regime spends as much as 22 percent of its economy on the military.
This huge military budget absorbs not just economic resources, it also absorbs people.
Many North Koreans have stayed as long as ten years in the army. What would happen if the U.S. were to spend 22 percent of its economy on the military as North Korea does? This would be devastating as there would be no budget left for other sectors. Countries that spent a small percentage of their economies on the military could grow faster, as happened in Japan after the Second World War.
A huge number of people in the military
Australia and North Korea have similar populations, but there is a huge difference in the size of the military of both countries. Australia has just 60,000 active personnel while the Communist dictatorship has 945,000. The U.S. has 1,373,650 soldiers, but the U.S. has more than 320 million inhabitants while North Korea has around 25 million.
The U.S. is far more populated, so, if America were as militaristic as the Pyongyang regime it would have more than 12 million people in the military! Another example is Russia. Russia is much bigger in area than North Korea and it's also about six times more populated, but Russia has fewer than 800,000 soldiers. If Russia were as militaristic as North Korea it would have almost 5 million people actively engaged in the Armed Forces.
