3.5 mn volunteers ready to fight u.s., claims n. Korea
North Korea has previously mobilised large crowds to show its resolve when tensions escalate. Its Army is estimated to have around 1.3 million members.
China’s President Xi Jinping said there needs to be a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue, and in a telephone call with U.S. President Donald Trump he urged all sides to avoid words or action that raise tensions.
Xi’s comments came hours after Trump warned North Korea that the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” as Pyongyang accused the U.S. leader of driving the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.
The Pentagon said the United States and South Korea would proceed as planned with a joint military exercise in 10 days, an action sure to further antagonise North Korea.
In a statement, China’s foreign ministry said Xi told Trump that a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue was essential, and urged calm.
“Concerned parties must exercise restraint and avoid remarks and actions that escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula,” it cited Xi as saying.
In their phone call, Trump and Xi “agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour,” the White House said in a statement, and reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. It added the relationship between Trump and Xi was “extremely close” and “will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem.” Trump and Xi also agreed that the recent adoption of a United Nations Security Council resolution on North Korea was an important step toward achieving peace and stability on the peninsula, it added.
“President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior,” the statement said.
The White House said the “relationship between the two presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem.”
North Korea said on Saturday that nearly 3.5 million workers, party members and soldiers volunteered to join or rejoin its army to resist new UN sanctions and to fight against the United States in the current geopolitical tension between Pyongyang and Washington.
Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s official newspaper, said the volunteers had offered to join or rejoin the People’s Army after the Korea Central News Agency ( KCNA) issued a statement on Monday condemning new sanctions imposed by the United Nations in retaliation for North Korean missile tests.
Earlier this week, nucleararmed North Korea threatenxed to strike the US and its Pacific territory of Guam.
KCNA said on Wednesday a mass rally was held in Pyongyang to support the government. North Korea has previously mobilised large crowds to show its resolve when tensions escalate.
In August 2015, one million North Koreans offered to enlist or re-enlist in the army when a mine exploded in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, raising additional tensions.
North Korea warned for- eign diplomats to leave Pyongyang in 2013 when it suspended work at a joint inter- Korean industrial park and threatened missile strikes on US Pacific bases, notably in Guam and Hawaii.
US President Donald Trump, vacationing at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort, earlier took to Twitter to warn North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that US “military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely”.
Again referring to Kim, Trump added, “If he utters one threat ... or if he does anything with respect to Guam or any place else that’s an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it, and he will regret it fast.”
In remarks to reporters after a meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, PresidentTrump said the situation with North Korea was “very dangerous and it will not continue”.
Meanwhile, both Russia and Germany have expressed alarm over the rise in rhetoric over North Korea. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Pyongyang and Washington to sign up to a joint Russian-Chinese plan by which North Korea would freeze missile tests and the US and South Korea would impose a moratorium on large-scale military exercises.