SEOUL: North Korean state media on Wednesday (Oct 16) said around 1.4 million young people including students and youth league officials joined or returned to the army this week.
The young people are determined to fight in a "sacred war of destroying the enemy with the arms of the revolution", the KCNA report said.
North Korea's claim of having over one million young people enlisting in the country's Korean People's Army in just two days comes at a time when tensions in the Korean peninsula are running high.
Last year, North Korean media made a similar claim of its citizens volunteering to join the military to fight against the United States.
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 has also accused Seoul of sending drones over the North Korean 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 anti-regime activists in the South."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.
An analyst said if 1.4 million people have indeed joined the army, they would likely have come from the crops-growing countryside. This sudden loss of farm labour will then put a severe strain on the North’s already dire food situation.
“Ordinary North Koreans are already challenged by a lack of food and nutrition. If this was a reality, this would make their health and food security conditions even worse,” said Stephen Nagy, professor of politics and international studies at the International Christian University in Tokyo.
He said North Korea’s recent moves aim to remind Seoul and Washington of Pyongyang’s military might, and gain some leverage for negotiations.
He added that he expects the North’s long track record of brinkmanship and provocations to continue.
“North Korea may be sending a message, not only to South Korea but also to the next US president, that North Korea is still on the map, and is still a highly disruptive power,” he told CNA’s Asia First programme.
“(Pyongyang) is trying to press the US to come to the table and negotiate some kind of settlement where they can demilitarise the Korean peninsula. But that's unrealistic (as long as) North Korea continues to possess and test nuclearlucky cola, chemical and biological weapons.”
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