More than 1.4 million have signed petitions to join the army determined to fight in a “sacred war of destroying the enemy with the arms of the revolution”, the official Korean Central News Agency said.
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.
Seoul initially denied sending drones, but Pyongyang claims it has “clear evidence” of official involvement in the campaign.
“Millions of young people have turned out in the nationwide struggle to wipe out the ROK scum who committed a serious provocation of violating the sovereignty of the DPRK through a drone infiltration,” KCNA said.
According to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, North Korea has 1.28 million active soldiers and about 600,000 reservists. It also reportedly had 5.7 million Worker/Peasant Red Guard reservists with many units unarmed.
The two Koreas are still technically at war after their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
“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.
