North Korea
PF Score
62
Authority × 0.6 + Reach × 0.4
Authority Score
72
Capacity to coerce
Reach Score
48
Influence projection
Score Trajectory
North Korea under Kim Jong-un exercises near-total internal control — a highly consolidated party-military-state apparatus with no meaningful domestic opposition, extensive surveillance, and effective…
North Korea's authority score of 72 is defensible given Kim Jong-un's near-total domestic control, but reach at 38 understates its current external footprint: active artillery shell supply to Russia, …
North Korea's Authority Score sits well above the state-type baseline (50) and peers like Pakistan (52) and Venezuela (38), reflecting one of the world's most consolidated personal-totalitarian contro…
Score Reasoning
North Korea's Authority Score sits well above the state-type baseline (50) and peers like Pakistan (52) and Venezuela (38), reflecting one of the world's most consolidated personal-totalitarian control systems — Kim Jong-un exercises near-total command over military, party, and civil society with no credible internal challenger, placing it closer to Israel (74) than to contested states, though chronic resource scarcity and economic dysfunction cap it below strong consolidated states like Germany (79). Reach is scored at 48, above the state baseline (35) and above Pakistan (38), reflecting North Korea's meaningful independent operational capacity: active nuclear and ICBM program, demonstrated arms exports (artillery to Russia), cyber warfare units with global reach, and ballistic missile sales — these predate and partially survive the China patron relationship, though China's patronage remains the primary structural enabler of DPRK's external posture; the ceiling of 75 is not binding here as independent operational reach does not approach it. Calibrated between Iran pre-degradation (Authority 52, Reach 48, PF 50) and Israel (Authority 72, Reach 71, PF 70) — North Korea's authority profile resembles the upper tier while its reach, though real and non-conventional, remains regionally constrained and sanctions-compressed.