North Korea announced – today, Wednesday – that more than a million young people have volunteered to join Army This week, after Pyongyang accused the South Korean military of sending drones into its airspace.
Yesterday, North Korea blew up symbolically important roads and railways linking the two Koreas after warning that any drone flight would be considered a declaration of war and ordered soldiers stationed at the border to prepare to fire.
Seoul denied that it sent the drones, but Pyongyang confirms that it has “clear evidence” of its southern neighbor’s official involvement in sending the drones believed to carry anti-regime propaganda leaflets that were dropped over the North Korean capital.
The official Korean Central News Agency said, “Millions of young people have joined the struggle across the country to eliminate the scum of the Republic of Korea who carried out a provocative act that risked violating the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of Korea by infiltrating drones.”
It reported that more than 1.4 million officials from the Youth and Student Association from across North Korea volunteered in the past two days to join or return to the Korean People’s Army.
Mandatory service
North Korea imposes prolonged compulsory military service on all men, and has previously announced waves of volunteering during periods of high tension with Seoul or Washington.
It is not yet clear who is behind the marches, but South Korean activists have long sent balloons carrying anti-regime leaflets in Pyongyang across the border, a tactic that infuriates the North, which responded by sending balloons laden with garbage to its southern neighbor.
The South Korean authorities are moving in areas near the border with the North to prevent activists from launching balloons.
In order to protect its citizens, the Gyeonggi local government will classify Yeoncheon, Gimpo and Paju as “special risk areas where anyone sending leaflets to the North could be subject to criminal investigation,” a Gyeonggi Province official told AFP.
The provincial government said – in a statement – that it considers “distributing anti-North leaflets a dangerous act that causes a crisis and could ignite a military conflict.”