According to a report in North Korea’s state newspaper on Saturday, approximately 800,000 of its residents offered to enlist or reenlist in the country’s military to battle the United States.
According to the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, some 800,000 students and employees nationwide expressed a desire to register or reenlist in the military on Friday alone in order to oppose the United States.
In the words of Rodong Sinmun of the North, “the soaring enthusiasm of young people to join the army is a demonstration of the unwavering will of the younger generation to mercilessly wipe out the war maniacs making last-ditch efforts to eliminate our precious socialist country, and achieve the great cause of national reunification without fail.
The North’s assertion follows the launch of its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday in retaliation for continuing military exercises between the United States and South Korea.
On Thursday, just hours before the president of South Korea took off for Tokyo for a summit to explore methods of containing the nuclear-armed North, North Korea launched an ICBM into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan.
Ballistic missiles from the North are prohibited by United Nations Security Council resolutions, and the launch was denounced by the governments of Seoul, Washington, and Tokyo.
South Korean and American forces began 11 days of joint drills, dubbed “Freedom Shield 23”, on Monday, held on a scale not seen since 2017 to counter the North’s growing threats.
With the military exercises, Kim said that South Korea and the US were escalating tensions.
