North Korea Says It’s Mobilizing 1.4 Million Troops

This is happening amid tensions with South Korea.

North Korea's state news agency KCNA announced on October 16 that about 1.4 million young people had applied to join or rejoin the army this week.

Pyongyang accused South Korea of provoking the army “with the potential to spark a war”. The North Korean government threatened to destroy South Korea in the event of war, Gordon reported.

Amid this, young people, including students and youth league leaders, who signed petitions to join the army “were determined to fight in a holy war to destroy the enemy with the weapons of revolution,” the report said.

Photos published by the agency showed young people signing petitions in an undisclosed location.

North Korea has made similar claims in the past about young men rushing to enlist in the military amid heightened tensions, though such claims from the isolated state are difficult to verify, Reuters reports. Last year, state media reported that 800,000 of its citizens had volunteered to fight against the United States. In 2017, it also said nearly 3.5 million workers, party members and soldiers had volunteered.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, cited by Reuters, North Korea has 1.28 million active soldiers and about 600,000 reservists, including 5.7 million reservists in the Workers' and Peasants' Red Guard, among many unarmed units.

Seoul's Defense Ministry did not comment on Pyongyang's mobilization announcement, but warned that if North Korea harmed the security of South Koreans, that day would be “the end of its regime”.

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