人民軍に８０万人超が入隊志願　北朝鮮

【ソウルＡＦＰ＝時事】北朝鮮の朝鮮中央通信（ＫＣＮＡ）は１８日、米韓合同軍事演習に反発して８０万人以上の若者が「帝国主義者」と戦うため朝鮮人民軍への入隊を志願したと報じた。（写真は資料写真）
　ＫＣＮＡは志願者について「戦争マニアを無慈悲に一掃する」決意の下、「国を守る」ため人民軍に参加したと説明。「１７日だけで全国の青年同盟メンバーや学生合わせて８０万人以上が朝鮮人民軍に志願・再志願した」としている。
　朝鮮労働党の機関紙、労働新聞は、建設現場と見られる場所で入隊を志願する若者が長い列をつくっている写真を掲載した。
　米韓両軍は、北朝鮮による相次ぐミサイル発射実験や核開発を受けて大規模な演習を実施している。北朝鮮はこれに対し、侵攻のリハーサルであり、「圧倒的な」行動で応じると警告している。ＫＣＮＡは米韓演習について、米国による「核戦争に向けた挑発」だと非難した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/03/20-17:13）

More than 800,000 young North Koreans have volunteered to join the army to fight US imperialists, state media said Saturday, days after Pyongyang test-fired its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile.
After a record-breaking year of weapons tests and growing nuclear threats from Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington have ramped up security cooperation, and this week kicked off their largest joint military drills in five years.
North Korea views all such exercises as rehearsals for invasion and has repeatedly warned it would take overwhelming action in response.
The official Korean Central News Agency described the ongoing drills as an American attempt to provoke a nuclear war and said that in response, hundreds of thousands of people had enlisted.
The young volunteers are determined to mercilessly wipe out the war maniacs so they joined the army to defend the country, KCNA said.
More than 800 000 youth league officials and students across the country volunteered to join and rejoin the Korean People's Army on Friday alone, it added.
Images released by Pyongyang's official Rodong Sinmun showed young North Koreans waiting in long lines to sign their names at what looks like a construction site.
The latest report comes after Pyongyang test-fired its largest and most powerful missile, a Hwasong-17, on Thursday -- its second ICBM test this year.
State media has described the launch as a response to the ongoing, frantic US-South Korea joint military drills.
On Saturday, KCNA said the ongoing drills were inching close to the unpardonable red-line.
Last year, North Korea declared itself an irreversible nuclear power, and leader Kim Jong Un recently called for an exponential increase in weapons production, including tactical nukes.
Kim earlier this month also ordered the North Korean military to intensify drills to prepare for a real war.
Pyongyang is using the drills to justify their nuclear weapons program domestically as crucial and necessary, Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
This involves spreading the idea that the South Korea-US military drills ultimately aim to destroy the current North Korean regime and even occupy its capital Pyongyang, Yang added.