North Korea claims army swells with 1.4 million young fighters clamouring to join

State media published photographs of young applicants fervently signing petitions to enlist for a ‘sacred war’ against South Korea

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Young people, including students and youth league officials, sign petitions to join or return to the army at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Photo: KCNA via Reuters

Published: 12:09pm, 16 Oct 2024Updated: 12:12pm, 16 Oct 2024

More than 1 million young people applied to join, or return to, North Korea’s army this week, state media said on Wednesday, accusing Seoul of a provocative drone incursion that had brought the “tense situation to the brink of war”.

The 1.4 million 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 official Korean Central News Agency said.

Photographs published by KCNA showed what it said were young people signing petitions at an undisclosed location on Monday and Tuesday.

North Korea’s claim of having more than 1 million young people volunteering to enlist in the country’s Korean People’s Army in just two days comes at a time when tensions on the Korean peninsula are running high.

Pyongyang on Tuesday blew up deeply symbolic roads and railways connecting the two Koreas after warning any further drone flights would be considered a declaration of war, and ordered soldiers on the border to prepare to fire.

A screen grab of video released by the South Korean Defence Ministry shows an explosion on Tuesday along a road connecting North and South Korea. Photo: South Korea’s Defence Ministry / AFP

Seoul initially denied sending drones, but Pyongyang claims it has “clear evidence” of official involvement in the campaign, which purportedly features anti-regime propaganda leaflets scattered over the North’s capital.