North Korea reports the mobilization of more than 800,000 volunteers

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According to North Korean state media, hundreds of thousands of young North Koreans have volunteered for military service to fight against the “US imperialists”.

On Friday alone, more than 800,000 youth league representatives, students and workers from across the country reported joining the people’s army, the official KCNA news agency reported Saturday. Photos in the state newspaper Rodong Sinmun showed long lines of young North Koreans in what appeared to be a construction site.

North Korea says it has tested its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-17, on Thursday. North Korea fired the ICBM into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan on Thursday, hours before the South Korean president flew to Tokyo for a summit. The meeting discussed, among other things, ways to combat the nuclear-armed North.

Military exercise as “unforgivable red line”

State media described the missile test as a response to the current military exercises between the US and South Korea dubbed “Freedom Shield 23”. KCNA warned Saturday that the biggest maneuvers in five years were approaching an “inexcusable red line.”

Pyongyang sees such maneuvers as preparation for an invasion of North Korea and has repeatedly threatened “overwhelming measures”. Last year, ruler Kim Jong-un (39) declared his internationally isolated country an “irreversible nuclear power”.

Earlier this month, he also ordered the army to step up maneuvers in preparation for a “real war.” (AFP/ced)

Source: Blick