Korea, North

Military branches:

North Korean People's Army: Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force; civil
security forces (2005)

Military service age and obligation:

17 years of age (2004)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 6,225,747
females age 16-49: 6,188,270 (2008 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 5,141,240
females age 16-49: 5,139,447 (2008 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 199,628
female: 192,388 (2008 est.)

Military expenditures:

NA

Transnational Issues
Korea, North

Disputes - international:

risking arrest, imprisonment, and deportation, tens of thousands of
North Koreans cross into China to escape famine, economic privation,
and political oppression; North Korea and China dispute the
sovereignty of certain islands in Yalu and Tumen rivers; Military
Demarcation Line within the 4-km wide Demilitarized Zone has
separated North from South Korea since 1953; periodic incidents in
the Yellow Sea with South Korea which claims the Northern Limiting
Line as a maritime boundary; North Korea supports South Korea in
rejecting Japan's claim to Liancourt Rocks (Tok-do/Take-shima)

Refugees and internally displaced persons:

IDPs: undetermined (flooding in mid-2007 and famine during
mid-1990s) (2007)

Trafficking in persons:

current situation: North Korea is a source country for men, women,
and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and
commercial sexual exploitation; the most common form of trafficking
involves North Korean women and girls who cross the border into
China voluntarily; additionally, North Korean women and girls are
lured out of North Korea to escape poor social and economic
conditions by the promise of food, jobs, and freedom, only to be
forced into prostitution, marriage, or exploitative labor
arrangements once in China
tier rating: Tier 3 - North Korea does not fully comply with minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
significant efforts to do so; the government does not acknowledge
the existence of human rights abuses in the country or recognize
trafficking, either within the country or transnationally; North
Korea has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol (2008)

Illicit drugs:

for years, from the 1970s into the 2000s, citizens of the Democratic
People's Republic of (North) Korea (DPRK), many of them diplomatic
empl