North Korea says 1.4 million young people apply to join army

North Korean state media said on Wednesday that around 1.4 million young people have applied to join or return to the army this week, accusing Seoul of a provocative drone incursion that it says had brought the “tense situation to the brink of war.”

The young people, including students and youth league officials who had signed petitions to join the army, are determined to fight in a “sacred war of destroying the enemy with the arms of the revolution,” the KCNA report said.

Photographs published by KCNA showed what it said were young people signing petitions at an undisclosed location.