North Korean state media said on Wednesday that about 1.4 million young people applied to join or return to the army this week, and accused Seoul of launching drones that “pushed the tense situation to the brink of war.”
These fiery statements come after she was accused north koreaLast week, its southern neighbor, by sending drones over Pyongyang, released a “huge number” of anti-North Korean leaflets.
In response, North Korea blew up roads and railway lines between the two countries on its side of the border on Tuesday, warning that the South “will pay a heavy price.”
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the young people, including students and youth league officials who had signed petitions to join the army, were determined to fight in a “holy war to destroy the enemy with weapons of revolution.”
Pictures published by the Korean Central News Agency showed what it said were young men signing petitions in an undisclosed location.
The agency’s report stated, “If war breaks out, the Republic of Korea will be wiped off the map. Since it wants war, we are prepared to end its existence.” The agency’s report included the initials South Korea Official, Republic of Korea.
Mutual threats
North Korea has previously made similar statements about young people rushing to enlist in light of the growing tensions, although it is difficult to verify such statements from the isolated country, according to Reuters.
Last year, official media reported that 800,000 of its citizens volunteered to join the northern army to fight against US. She also said in 2017 that nearly 3.5 million party workers and members had volunteered to serve.
According to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, North Korea has 1.28 million active soldiers and about 600,000 reservists, with 5.7 million reservists in the “Red Guard” made up of workers and peasants, one of many unarmed units.
Seoul’s Ministry of Defense did not comment on the latest KCNA report, but warned that if North Korea harmed the safety of South Koreans, that day would be “the end of its regime.”
In light of the escalating tension, the deputy foreign ministers of South Korea and the United States are scheduled to hold a meetingJapan Talks in Seoul, Wednesday.
An official at Seoul’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said Pyongyang may be seeking to promote people’s unity and build a rationale for provocation by inflaming and exaggerating tensions against the South.
The official said that there is also public pressure on the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un On economic challenges.
Strengthening the two-state system
Park Won-joon, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told Reuters that North Korea is using the drone incident to mobilize people against the South, in line with its efforts to sever cross-border relations and strengthen the “two-state” system.
He added: “If you look at the interviews that constantly appear in the official media, there are very harsh words towards the South, and this is their typical propaganda for public mobilization.”
Earlier this year, Kim declared South Korea a “fundamental enemy” and said unification was no longer possible, and North Korea has since taken steps to sever inter-Korean relations.
The two Koreas are still technically at war, after their 1950-1953 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
The two neighboring countries also clashed over garbage balloons launched last May from the North, which they said were a response to anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by balloons by defectors and activists in the South as well.
“Overall, there seems to be a sense of building a legacy here, as Kim Jong Un looks to change the status quo on the Korean peninsula to preserve two permanent Korean states,” said Jenny Towne of the US-based Stimson Center.