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

North Korea has claimed that about 800,000 of its citizens volunteered to join or reenlist in the country’s military to fight against the United States, North Korea’s state newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported Saturday.

About 800,000 students and workers across the country on Friday alone expressed a desire to enlist or reenlist in the military to counter the United States, the newspaper reported.

“The soaring enthusiasm of young people to join the army is a demonstration of the unshakeable will of the younger generation to mercilessly wipe out the war maniacs making last-ditch efforts to eliminate our precious socialist country, and achieve the great cause of national reunification without fail and a clear manifestation of their ardent patriotism,” it said.

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

North Korea fired the ICBM into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol flew to Tokyo for a summit that discussed ways to counter the nuclear-armed Pyongyang.

Pyongyang’s ballistic missiles are prohibited under the United Nations Security Council resolutions, and the launch was condemned by the South Korean, American, and Japanese governments.

The US and South Korea’s forces on Monday began 11 days of joint drills, dubbed “Freedom Shield 23,” held on a scale not seen since 2017 to counter the North’s growing threats.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who has made strengthening the US-South Korea alliance a key foreign policy priority, accused Washington and Seoul of increasing tensions with the military drills.