PYONGYANG (Al Jazeera) – North Korea claims that about 800,000 young people have volunteered for military service to fight against the United States and other enemies, the country’s state newspaper Rodong Sinmum has reported.
The volunteers – promising to “completely wipe out” North Korea’s enemies and unify the two Koreas – signed up for enlistment or re-enlistment in the military at events on Friday, Rodong Sinmum said, in a report that featured photos of people waiting in long lines to sign their names at construction sites and other outdoor venues.
“About 800,000″ students and workers – described as the country’s “youth vanguard” – had stepped up “at once to join the war to defend the homeland and the war to destroy the enemy”, Rondong Sinmum reported on Saturday, according to NK News – which monitors events in North Korea.
According to the NK News report, the young volunteers were said to be responding to provocative acts by the U.S. and South Korea, referred to in the newspaper report as “U.S. imperialists and puppet traitors” bent on destroying North Korea’s “independence and right to live and develop”.
The youth volunteers were determined to “mercilessly wipe out the war fanatics who are making a last-ditch effort to erase our socialist fatherland”, Rondong Sinmum said, according to NK News.
“While the ages of those who reportedly signed up were not announced, all men in North Korea must serve in the military for at least 10 years and women for at least three years due to the country’s conscription system,” NK News reported.
The mass enlistment on Friday came a day after North Korea launched a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which Pyongyang said had travelled some 1,000km (620 miles) “before accurately landing” at a pre-set location in the East Sea of Korea, which is also known as the Sea of Japan.
North Korea said it launched the Hwasong-17 in response to “provocative and aggressive” military drills under way between the U.S. and South Korea. Pyongyang regards the joint exercises as a rehearsal by Washington and Seoul for an invasion of the North.
South Korean and U.S. forces began 11 days of joint military drills, dubbed “Freedom Shield 23”, on Monday.