Pyongyang, March 20 (KCNA) -- The number of young people who have turned out in the campaign for defending the country is increasing with each passing day amid the surging resentment and hostility toward the U.S. imperialists and south Korean puppet traitors keen on reckless moves for igniting a nuclear war against the DPRK.

The number of young people who ardently volunteered to join and rejoin the Korean People's Army (KPA) is about 1.4 million across the country as of March 19.

The enthusiasm of the young people to join the army at worksites and schools across the country is a manifestation of the high spiritual world of the sons and daughters of heroic Korea who are determined to win a brilliant victory and honor in the struggle for defending the country and the revolution with ardent love for the country and the people and with severe hatred of the enemy.

There took place meetings in different parts of the country.

The patriotic young people pledged to mete out a merciless punishment to the enemies bringing the dark clouds of a nuclear war to hang over the land, crying out for "occupying Pyongyang", and to win victory in the great war for national reunification before anyone else.

More than 950 000 working youths from industrial establishments and farms including the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex, the Namhung Youth Chemical Complex, the Sunchon Area Youth Coal Mining Complex, the Pyongyang Electric Cable General Factory 326 and the Okuk Farm in Anak County turned out in the struggle to defend the country at the risk of their lives and over 180 000 young people volunteered to join and rejoin the People's Army in North Phyongan Province alone.

This clearly shows that the immutable will of the young vanguard of Juche Korea to settle accounts with the aggressors to the last is surging up.

Students of universities and senior middle schools across the country expressed their determination to join in the struggle to smash the aggressors with arms in their hand as the children's guard did in the Fatherland Liberation War.

Hundreds of thousands of members of the Young Red Guards of senior middle schools across the country volunteered to join the KPA with a single will to wipe out the group of the heinous enemies who are trying to turn their beloved native places into the sea of flames.

The successors to the revolution and the younger generation who have hardened their faith and will to dedicate themselves to the country, revolution and socialism under the care of the Party are fully determined to advance southward and bring about epochal victory in the confrontation with the U.S. and south Korea at any cost if the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet traitors dare to ignite a war on the inviolable territory of the DPRK. -0-

www.kcna.kp (Juche112.3.20.)