North Korea says 800,000 people wish to join military to fight ‘US imperialists’

North Korea: The claim came after North Korea launched its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in response to ongoing US-South Korea military drills.

Almost 800,000 North Koreans have volunteered to join the nation's military to fight against the US, CNN reported quoting North Korea's state newspaper Rodong Sinmun. The claim came after North Korea launched its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Pyongyang's launch came amid ongoing South Korea-US Freedom Shield (FS) exercise which North Korea called "preparations for a war of aggression" against it.

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 14, 2023. (AP)

North Korea confirmed the launch of the missile saying that it was a "stronger warning" to the US and South Korea.

North Korea said, "Under the grave situation in which the most unstable security environment is being created in the Korean peninsula due to the frantic, provocative and aggressive large-scale war drills conducted by the US and the south Korean puppet traitors against the DPRK, the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) saw to it that a launching drill of the ICBM Hwasongpho-17 was conducted on March 16."

"The launching drill of the strategic weapon serves as an occasion to give a stronger warning to the enemies intentionally escalating the tension in the Korean peninsula while persistently resorting to irresponsible and reckless military threats in defiance of the DPRK's severe warning, and give an understanding of the concern about the armed conflict which has come to a threatening reality, and to more clearly show the practical will of the Party and government of the DPRK to counterattack with overwhelming offensive measures anytime," it added.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un guided the launching drill, Reuters reported.