SEOUL, Feb. 29 (UPI) -- North Korea is encouraging the adoption of "militant ideology" in the face of impending sanctions that could target a number of entities connected to weapons proliferation.
State-controlled newspaper Rodong Sinmun issued an editorial Monday that stated the country's 10 million soldiers are being encouraged to pursue radical militaristic ideas.
The movement is part of large-scale preparations that could be taking place in the country, ahead of the Seventh Congress of the ruling Workers' Party to be held for the first time in more than three decades.
The Party's Central Military Commission and other task forces have declared a 70-day "battle" or mass rally across the country, and large groups of state workers, students, farmers, and government officers are expected to be in participation.
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"Through revolutionary militant thought, we will gain control over the enemy, and through our indomitable spirit we will overcome difficulties. Now more than ever we must ring forth the gunfire more forcefully," Pyongyang said in statement.
North Korea said it must push aside domestic adherents of a "rotting bourgeois cultural ideology" as "the U.S. imperialists and their followers cling persistently to blockading maneuvers and push for sanctions."
"They are running around breathlessly with bloodshot eyes, while trying to push us into collapse," North Korea said.
The planned rallies are to bring an end to conservatism, formalism, bureaucracy and other outdated ideologies, North Korea said. Pyongyang also urged North Korean youth not to forget the brutality of the "invaders and class enemies."
In a separate statement on KCNA, North Korea denounced the United States for double standards regarding what Pyongyang has claimed are "peaceful" satellite launches.
"Our satellite launch is clearly for peaceful space development purposes and can never be a threat to other nations," North Korea said, "But the United States insists that it is a 'threat.'"
North Korea said it would not give up space development because the United States opposes the program.
Critics have said the rocket launches that send North Korean satellites into space is a cover for Pyongyang's ballistic missile development.
