North Korea says 3.5mn volunteers ‘ready to retaliate against US’

“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 paper said.

On Wednesday, tens of thousands of North Koreans rallied on Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang, the capital, after the UN Security Council passed a new round of sanctions against the country.

The restrictions came after North Korea’s latest missile tests, which it claimed involved the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Russia, however, said that the missiles were intermediate range.

The war of words between Pyongyang and Washington has escalated since US President Donald Trump took office. Trump has repeatedly stated that the White House has run out of patience with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Amid the recent spike in tensions, Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” later adding that the threat wasn't tough enough.

Pyongyang recently said it was working on a plan to launch a medium-range ballistic missile near the US territory of Guam, some 3,200km from North Korea. US officials then told NBC that Washington has a plan for a preemptive strike on North Korean missile sites with bombers stationed in Guam, should Trump order it.

On Friday, the US president again added fuel to the fire, saying that if Pyongyang “acts unwisely,” Washington has military solutions “locked and loaded.”

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