North Korea has asserted that about 800,000 of its citizens have voluntarily enlisted or reenlisted to fight against the United States.

North Korea’s main newspaper Rodong Sinmun stated on Saturday that 800,000 students and workers indicated a willingness to enroll or reenlist in the military to combat the United States on Friday alone.

In reaction to current US-South Korea military exercises, North Korea fired its Hwasong-17

Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday.

North Korea launched the intercontinental ballistic missile into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on Thursday, hours before South Korea’s president travelled to Tokyo for a conference to discuss countermeasures against the nuclear-armed North.

United Nations Security Council resolutions prohibit the North’s ballistic missiles, and the launch was condemned by the governments of Seoul, Washington, and Tokyo.

On Monday, South Korean and US soldiers commenced 11 days of joint drills, dubbed “Freedom Shield 23,” on a scale not seen since 2017 in response to North Korea’s escalating threats.

North Korea says that around 800,000 individuals have enlisted

Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, has accused the United States and South Korea of heightening tensions with their military exercises.

North Korea frequently issues bellicose threats in response to what it perceives as “provocations” by the United States. In addition to the joint military exercises and this week’s meeting between South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japan’s leader Fumio Kishida, experts believe North Korea has objected to US President Joe Biden’s decision to visit Yoon and his wife at the White House next month.

The state visit will take place on April 26 and will be the second of Vice President Biden’s presidency, highlighting the solid connections between the United States and South Korea.

Yoon and his government have considered strengthening the relationship between the United States and South Korea a top foreign policy objective. Biden has also endeavored to cultivate the connection, as seen by his travel to Seoul in May 2022, the first destination of his maiden journey to Asia as president.

Professor Leif-Eric Easley of Ewha Womans University in Seoul recently told CNN that in reaction to the exercises and summits, Pyongyang might order longer-range missile launches, seek to launch a spy satellite, demonstrate a solid-fuel engine, and perhaps conduct a nuclear test.