SEOUL (Dispatches) -- North Korea said on Saturday that nearly 3.5 million workers, party members and soldiers volunteered to join or rejoin its army to resist new UN sanctions and to fight against the United States in the current geopolitical tension between Pyongyang and Washington.
Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's official newspaper, said the volunteers had offered to join or rejoin the People's Army after the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) issued a statement on Monday condemning new sanctions imposed by the United Nations in retaliation for North Korean missile tests.
Earlier this week, nuclear-armed North Korea threatened to strike the United States and its Pacific territory of Guam.
KCNA said on Wednesday a mass rally was held in Pyongyang to support the government. In August 2015, 1 million North Koreans offered to enlist or re-enlist in the army when a mine exploded in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, raising additional tensions.
Xi Urges Trump to Avoid Inflaming Tensions
Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday to avoid rhetoric that could exacerbate tensions with North Korea as an escalating war of words raised global alarm.
Xi made the plea in a phone call hours after Trump ramped up his warnings to Pyongyang, saying Pyongyang would "truly regret" taking hostile action against the United States.
The Chinese foreign ministry said Xi urged Trump to avoid "words and deeds" that would "exacerbate" the already-tense situation, exercise restraint and seek a political settlement.
Trump has been engaged all week in verbal sparring with the North over its weapons and missile programs, as U.S. media reported Pyongyang has successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead.
The Republican billionaire has progressively ramped up the tone throughout the week and on Friday declared that the U.S. military is "locked and loaded."
Japanese media said Tokyo was deploying its Patriot missile defense system following Pyongyang's threat to fire ballistic missiles over the country towards Guam.
Satellite photos posted by defense expert Joseph Bermudez suggested that North Korea could be preparing for fresh submarine-based ballistic missile tests.
Trump had earlier brandished a threat of unleashing "fire and fury" on Pyongyang, then noted Thursday maybe that statement "wasn't tough enough."
The North's official KCNA news service in an editorial blamed Trump for "driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war," calling the U.S. "the heinous nuclear war fanatic."
The saber-rattling has sparked worldwide concerns that a miscalculation by either side could trigger a catastrophic conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
Russia and Germany have also urged both sides to tone down the rhetoric.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was "very alarmed" at Trump's tough talk, and said Washington should take the first step toward cooling tensions.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said diplomacy was the answer.
"Germany will very intensively take part in the options for resolution that are not military but I consider a verbal escalation to be the wrong response," she said.
French President Emmanuel Macron also warned against an "escalation of tensions" over North Korea.
In a statement, Macron said the international community needed to work to get all sides to "resume the path of dialogue without conditions.”