SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean state media said on Wednesday that about 1.4 million young people, including students and youth league activists, had joined or returned to the military this week.
Young people are determined to fight in a “holy war to destroy the enemy with the weapons of revolution,” the KCNA report said.
North Korea’s claim that more than a million young people have enlisted in the Korean People’s Army in just two days comes at a time when tensions are high on the Korean Peninsula.
Last year, North Korean media made a similar claim that its citizens were volunteering for military service to fight against the United States.
North Korea blew up sections of inter-Korean roads and railways on its side of the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas on Tuesday, prompting South Korea’s military to fire warning shots.
Pyongyang also accused Seoul of sending drones over the North Korean capital, and the two Koreas clashed over garbage balloons flown from North Korea since May. Pyongyang said the launches were in response to balloons sent by anti-regime activists in the South.
“If war breaks out, the Republic of Korea will be wiped off the map. Because it wants war, we are ready to put an end to its existence,” the KCNA report said.
