Pyongyang [North Korea], March 19 (ANI): North Korea claimed that about 800,000 civilians have volunteered to join the nation's military to fight against the US, CNN reported.

North Korea's state newspaper Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that around 800,000 students and workers alone have expressed their desire to join the military to counter the US.

The claim came after North Korea on Thursday launched its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in response to ongoing US-South Korea military drills, reported CNN.

North Korea launched the intercontinental ballistic missile, (ICBM) Hwasongpho-17, amid the ongoing South Korea-US Freedom Shield (FS) exercise, which the country has decried as "preparations for a war of aggression" against it, according to Yonhap News agency.

After the launch of the missile, North Korea confirmed they had fired it, adding that it was a "stronger warning" to the US and South Korea for their provocative and aggressive large-scale war drills.

In the state news agency, KCNA, North Korea said, "Under the grave situation in which the most unstable security environment is being created in the Korean peninsula due to the frantic, provocative and aggressive large-scale war drills conducted by the US and the south Korean puppet traitors against the DPRK, the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) saw to it that a launching drill of the ICBM Hwasongpho-17 was conducted on March 16.""The launching drill of the strategic weapon serves as an occasion to give a stronger warning to the enemies intentionally escalating the tension in the Korean peninsula while persistently resorting to irresponsible and reckless military threats in defiance of the DPRK's severe warning, and give an understanding of the concern about the armed conflict which has come to a threatening reality, and to more clearly show the practical will of the Party and government of the DPRK to counterattack with overwhelming offensive measures anytime," the statement added.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un guided the launching drill of an ICBM unit on the spot.

Leading officials of the WPK Central Committee and commanding officers of the Missile General Bureau watched the launching drill in the presence of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un.

The drill was aimed at confirming the mobile and normal operation and reliability of the DPRK's nuclear war deterrent.

"The ICBM Hwasongpho-17, launched at the Pyongyang International Airport, travelled up to a maximum altitude of 6 045km and flew a distance of 1 000.2 km for 4 151s before accurately landing on the preset area in the open waters of the East Sea of Korea," the statement added. (ANI)