N. Korea claims 1.4 million applied to join army this week

North Korean state media on Oct 16 said around 1.4 million young people, including students and youth league officials, had applied to join or return to the army this week, accusing Seoul of a provocative drone incursion that had brought the "tense situation to the brink of war".

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

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

North Korea's claim of having over one million young people applying to enlist in the country's Korean People's Army in just two days comes at a time when tensions in the Korean peninsula are running high.

North Korea has made similar claims in the past when there have been heightened tensions in the region.