The North Korean Minister of Armed Forces Pak Yong-sik warned Washington on Wednesday not to “misjudge” Pyongyang, amid growing speculations of additional missile provocations.
“If the enemies follow a dangerous path of a pre-emptive nuclear attack and continue to underestimate the strategic position of the DPRK, the undefeated Revolutionary Army, … without any warning, will carry out the most fundamental pre-emptive nuclear strike in the heart of the American empire, wiping it from the face of the Earth and will finish till the end the historic reunification of the homeland,” Yong-sik said.
The minister also said that the US is plotting its own preventive nuclear strike against the DPRK, fearing the growth of the military power of this country.
North Koreans, however, believe that they defeated the United States in the Korean War 64 years ago and celebrate the day of the cease-fire on July 27 as a victorious day.
Currently, Pyongyang is intensively developing nuclear and missile weapons, conducting tests, despite the sanctions of the UN Security Council and individual countries.
The new round of hostile rhetoric comes in the wake of comments from CIA Director Mike Pompeo during the July 21 Aspen Security Forum.
“It would be a great thing to denuclearize the [Korean] Peninsula, to get those weapons off of that, but the thing that is most dangerous about it is the character who holds the control over them today,” Pompeo told The New York Times.
Pompeo did not directly state that the US or the CIA was seeking regime change in North Korea, but he strongly implied it. This provoked furor in Pyongyang.
A spokesman from the DPRK's Foreign Ministry said that the US officials are crossing the line with such statements and it “has now become clear that the ultimate aim of the Trump administration's hostile policy towards the DPRK … is ‘regime change.’”
“Should the US dare to show even the slightest sign of an attempt to remove our supreme leadership," the spokesman added, "we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the US with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time.”
