North Korean state media on Wednesday said around 1.4 million young people, including students and youth league officials, joined or returned to the army this week, determined to fight in a “sacred war of destroying the enemy with the arms of the revolution.” The move comes as tensions in the Korean peninsula are running high. The reclusive country regularly claims patriotic waves of enlistments during heightened tensions with Seoul or Washington.
KCNA reported that a meeting of top leaders, chaired by leader Kim Jong Un, set the course of immediate military action against an aggressive enemy and urged the people to rally around the army. The news agency said Kim emphasized that the “noble task” of the army is to protect the country’s sovereignty from hostile forces and resolutely fight for its independence.
The report did not specify the nature of the enemy. Still, KCNA quoted the head of the National Defense Commission as saying that it is “an obvious and clear fact that the enemy is seeking to bring about nuclear war on the Korean peninsula.” It is unclear how the alleged surge in enlistment will affect troop strength or readiness, although the government typically increases the size of its forces during heightened tensions. The news agency said the military’s unified command, headed by Gen. Ri Yong Ho, was responsible for the enlistment drive.
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Defectors, media, and NGO reports indicate that the North maintains a system of arbitrary arrest and detention without trial or public disclosure of reasons for detention. The constitution guarantees the inviolability of a person’s residence and privacy of correspondence, but the regime violates those provisions regularly. A 2020 HRNK report on Prison Labor Facility Number 1 (Kaechon) postulated that the government may operate more than 20 kyohwaso, which are prisons used for forced labor. Prisoners worked in agricultural fields, orchards, and livestock, mined coal, and worked in light industrial facilities.
The government restricts freedom of expression in many ways and has blocked the visits of international journalists and human rights monitors. It also does not allow the UN special rapporteur on prisoners of conscience to visit the country, nor does it permit other independent monitors to inspect prisons and detention centers. Moreover, it has repeatedly prevented the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from visiting the country. In addition, a 2020 law that limited the broadcasting of foreign content was ruled unconstitutional by South Korea’s constitutional court last year. The South has resumed loudspeaker broadcasts along the border containing K-pop and international news, which infuriate the North and spark calls for protests from activists.
