 North Korea claims almost 800,000 people have signed up for military to fight against U.S. A day after launching a long-range nuclear missile as a warning to the U.S. and South Korea around 800,000 young North Koreans signed up for military service and vowed to completely wipe out enemies and unify the Koreas according to state media on Saturday. The Rodong Sinmun Report said the youth vanguard rose up at once to join the war to defend the homeland and the war to destroy the enemy, referred to in the article as the U.S. imperialists and puppet traitors who are trying to destroy our independence and right to live and develop. It repeated refrains from state propaganda in recent weeks that provocations by Washington and Seoul are crossing a line that can no longer be tolerated and that North Korea seeks to demonstrate it can overpower enemy military capabilities. The U.S. and South Korea started two weeks of large-scale joint military exercises last Monday. Pyongyang had demanded an end to the drills and conducted a series of missile launches and warned that the situation could escalate to war. Photos released with Saturday's report showed young people waiting in line to sign documents as state-organized rallies held Friday at theaters and construction sites. Military enlistment numbers are continuously rising around the country, it said. The North's ballistic missiles are banned under United Nations Security Council resolutions and the launch drew condemnation from governments in Seoul, Washington and Tokyo. South Korean and American forces began 11 days of joint drills dubbed Freedom Shield 23 on Monday held on a scale not seen since 2017 to counter the North's growing threats. Northern Korea accused the United States and South Korea of increasing tensions with the military drills.