North Korea: 3.5mn volunteers 'ready to retaliate against US'

AFP PHOTO / KCNA via KNS

At least 3.5 million young people and retired soldiers have joined the North Korean military to fight in the event of a war against the US, state media said, adding that people are rising up "to retaliate against" Washington.

"All the people are rising up across the country to retaliate against the US thousands of times," North Korea's Rodong Sinmun, the Workers' Party newspaper, reported, as cited by the South Korean Yonhap news agency.

According to the paper, about 3.47 million people, including students and retired soldiers, asked the authorities to enlist them in the military.

"In North Hwanghae Province, 89,000 young men pleaded to enlist or reenlist on August 9 alone. In Daedong County of South Pyongan Province, more than 20,000 students, party members and laborers filed enlistment or reenlistment requests," the...