North Korean state media say the mass recruitment is in response to military exercises between the US and South Korea.
North Korea claims about 800,000 young people have volunteered for military service to fight against the United States and other enemies, the country’s state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmum reported.
The volunteers – who vowed to “completely wipe out” North Korea’s enemies and unite the two Koreas – signed up for conscription or reintegration into the military at state-organized events on Friday, Rodong Sinmum said in a report that included photos of people wait in long lines to sign their names at construction sites and other outdoor venues.
“Some 800,000” students and workers – dubbed the country’s “youth vanguard” – had “immediately joined the war to defend the homeland and the war to destroy the enemy,” Rondong Sinmum reported on Saturday, according to NK News – which covers events in North Korea supervised.
According to the NK News report, the young volunteers are said to have responded to provocative actions by the US and South Korea, which the newspaper report describes as “US imperialists and puppet traitors” bent on destroying and developing North Korea’s “independence and right to life”. “.
The youth volunteers are determined “to mercilessly wipe out the war fanatics who are making a last-ditch effort to wipe out our socialist fatherland,” Rondong Sinmum said, according to NK News.
“While the ages of those who have reportedly enlisted have not been disclosed, the country’s conscription system requires all men in North Korea to serve in the military for a minimum of 10 years and women for a minimum of three years,” NK News reported.
Friday’s mass recruitment came a day after North Korea fired a Hwasong-17 ICBM, which Pyongyang said traveled about 1,000 km (620 miles) “before landing at a precise location in the East Sea.” of Korea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
North Korea said it launched the Hwasong-17 in response to “provocative and aggressive” military exercises underway between the US and South Korea. Pyongyang sees the joint exercises as Washington and Seoul’s dress rehearsal for an invasion of the north.
South Korean and US forces began 11-day joint military exercises dubbed “Freedom Shield 23” on Monday.
NEW: Full story here on “800,000” young North Koreans reportedly pledged to “join the war to defend the homeland and the war to annihilate the enemy”, Americans and South Koreans. https://t.co/ExYdajzn2Z
— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) March 17, 2023
The launch of the Hwasong ICBM on Thursday came just hours before the South Korean president flew to Tokyo for a summit with the country’s prime minister to discuss possibilities for Seoul-Japan cooperation in countering the military threat posed by North Korea.
The Tokyo summit between South Korean Yoon Suk-yeol and Japan’s Fumio Kishida marked the first visit by a South Korean president to Japan in 12 years. The visit comes amid an unprecedented number of ballistic missile launches and other weapons tests by North Korea in recent months.
