North Korean state media reported on Wednesday that around 1.4 million young people, including students and youth league officials, have volunteered to join or re-enlist in the army this week. The surge in enlistments is seen as a response to an alleged South Korean drone incursion, which Pyongyang claims has pushed the peninsula "to the brink of war."

The North’s official news agency, KCNA, published photos of young people signing petitions, expressing their readiness to fight in what it described as a "sacred war of destroying the enemy with the arms of the revolution." In a fiery statement, KCNA accused South Korea of provoking conflict, warning that if war breaks out, the Republic of Korea (ROK) "will be wiped off the map."

This latest escalation follows North Korea's accusations last week that Seoul had sent drones over Pyongyang to scatter anti-regime leaflets. In retaliation, North Korea blew up roads and rail lines on its side of the border and vowed that the South would "pay a dear price." Seoul’s defense ministry has not responded to the enlistment claims but has warned that any harm to South Koreans would mark the end of North Korea’s regime.

Analysts believe that Pyongyang may be using these tensions to consolidate domestic unity. Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha Womans University, stated that the North appears to be using the drone incident as a pretext to rally its population against the South, a tactic often seen in the regime's public mobilization efforts.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been simmering for months, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier declaring South Korea as the North’s "primary foe" and effectively ending hopes of unification. The two Koreas remain technically at war, as the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Amid these rising tensions, vice foreign ministers from South Korea, the United States, and Japan are holding talks in Seoul, seeking to address the escalating situation and find ways to prevent further provocations.

This enlistment surge is not the first of its kind, as similar reports have been made in the past by North Korea’s state media, often difficult to verify from outside the isolated state. Last year, Pyongyang claimed 800,000 citizens volunteered to fight against the United States, and in 2017, 3.5 million workers and soldiers were said to have signed up for military service.