SEOUL: More than 800,000 young North Koreans have volunteered to join the army to fight US imperialists. State media said on Saturday, 18 days after Pyongyang test-fired its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile.
After a record-breaking year of weapons tests and growing nuclear threats from Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington have ramped up security cooperation, and this week kicked off their largest joint military drills in five years.
North Korea views all such exercises as rehearsals for invasion and has warned it would take overwhelming action in response.
The Korean Central News Agency described the ongoing drills as an American attempt to provoke a nuclear war and said hundreds of thousands of people had enlisted in response.
The young volunteers were determined to wipe out the war maniacs so they joined the army to defend the country KCNA said.
More than a handful of youth league officials and students across the country volunteered to join the Korean People's Army on Friday alone, it added.