North Korean state media said on Wednesday around 1.4 million young people had applied to join or return to the army this week, blaming Seoul for a provocative drone incursion that had brought the "tense situation to the brink of war", Paralel.Az reports citing Reuters.

The fiery rhetoric comes after North Korea last week accused Seoul of sending drones over Pyongyang that scattered a "huge number" of anti-North leaflets. It then blew up inter-Korean roads and rail lines on its side of the border on Tuesday, and warned that the South would "pay a dear price".