The 80-year-old North Korean war vet says he's been holding onto a bullet he didn't get to fire when his country declared a truce with its neighbor 60 years ago.

Now -- if North Korean state media is to be believed -- the man is itching to do so.

"I am still keeping a bullet that I failed to fire at a trench in the 1950s because the U.S. imperialists and their stooges signed an armistice agreement," the man is quoted as saying in Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party.

"Send me to the trench. Give me a rifle. I want to rain bullets on the enemy to my heart's content."

Like him, the newspaper said, North Koreans across the country are begging to join the army after the United Nations slapped the country with new sanctions.

It's the latest hyperbole coming out of the repressed country after the North reneged Monday on a 60-year-old armistice that had maintained an uneasy peace with South Korea since the Korean War in the 1950s.

"All people who can take rifle are petitioning to be allowed to join or rejoin the People's Army in all provinces and towns," the newspaper said.

For its part, South Korea said it's keeping a close watch and making sure its combined forces with the United States are prepared for moves by the North.

"There are possibilities that these activities could lead to provocations," defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-suk said.

If they do, he added, "We will respond in a more resolute and destructively manner."