jordan pulse -

North Korea's official newspaper reported Saturday that hundreds of thousands of citizens in the country have volunteered to join its army or re-enlist to fight against the United States.

And the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that about 800,000 students and workers expressed, on Friday, their desire to enlist or rejoin the army to confront the United States.

This comes after North Korea launched, Thursday, its intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-17 in response to the ongoing military exercises between the United States and South Korea.

North Korea fired missiles into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, hours before the South Korean president headed to Tokyo for a summit that discussed ways to confront the nuclear-armed North.

North Korea's ballistic missiles are banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions, and the launch drew condemnation from governments in Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.

On Monday, the South Korean and US forces began an 11-day joint exercise, dubbed "Shield of Freedom 23", which is taking place on a scale not repeated since 2017 to counter the growing threats from North Korea.

The North Korean leader accused the United States and South Korea of increasing tension with these military exercises.

Reuters