North Korea Says 1.4 Million Young People Apply to Join Army

The young people, including students and youth league officials who had signed petitions to join the army, were determined to fight in a “sacred war of destroying the enemy with the arms of the revolution,” the KCNA report said, Reuters reported.

Photographs published by KCNA showed young people signing petitions at an undisclosed location.

It comes at a time when tensions on the Korean peninsula are running high.

North Korea has made similar claims in the past when there have been heightened tensions in the region.

Last year, state media reported on 800,000 of its citizens volunteering to join the North’s military to fight against the United States.

In 2017, nearly 3.5 million workers, party members and soldiers volunteered to join or rejoin its army.

In the latest sign of the growing tensions, North Korea blew up sections of inter-Korean roads and rail lines on its side of the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas on Tuesday, prompting South Korea’s military to fire warning shots.

Pyongyang had said last week it would cut off the inter-Korean roads and railways entirely and further fortify the areas on its side of the border as part of its push for a “two-state” system, scrapping its longstanding goal of unification.

The two Koreas are still technically at war after their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

North Korea has also accused Seoul of sending drones over its capital and the two Koreas have clashed over balloons of trash floated since May from North Korea. Pyongyang has said the launches are a response to balloons sent by activists in the South.

South Korea’s government has declined to say whether its military or civilians had flown the alleged drones over Pyongyang.

“If a war breaks out, the ROK will be wiped off the map. As it wants a war, we are willing to put an end to its existence,” the KCNA report said, referring to the South’s official name the Republic of Korea.