It’s being reported that North Korea is forcing children, middle school age, to sign a petition for enlistment into their military as a response for the “looming” threat of war.
“I will volunteer to join the People’s Army to protect my country,” reads the petition that authorities are coercing young North Koreans to sign, reports Daily NK, citing sources in country. The North has been pressuring its youth, from middle school to university, to sign up for battle.
“Youth from all over the country and university students have submitted petitions for enrollment or reenlistment, and even 15-year-old students are signing the forms,” a source in Ryanggang Province recently told Daily NK,”The petitions are being signed under forcible and coercive pressure from the North Korean authorities.”
Officials from the North Korean “government” stated earlier this month that over 3,000,000 had “voluntarily” enlisted into their armed forces but it seems clear that this is all coercive pressure from the dilapidated country. Even worse when you consider that The Korean People’s Army, the military for North Korea, lowered physical requirements to join in an effect to increase numbers.
This country is known for having a real issue feeding it’s people… are the heck do they plan to feed well over 1 million soldiers?
“There are too many soldiers to feed,” Japanese filmmaker Jiro Ishimaru, who has ties to sources inside North Korea, revealed to the Guardian, “and corruption is rife, so that by the time senior military officers have taken their share of food provisions to sell for profit on the private market, there is next to nothing left for ordinary soldiers.” The documentary filmmaker has personally seen emaciated and malnourished soldiers along the Yalu River.
North Korean troops are “in poor physical condition and in no fit state to fight,” he added.
“The regime has not been providing enough food for its army, leaving many soldiers suffering from malnutrition and attempting desertion,” Daily NK’s source said.
“For this reason, students do not aspire to serve in the army,” the inside source further explained.
