N Korea threatens nuclear strike “at the heart of the US”

DPA, 26th JULY, 2017
North Korea has threatened to launch a nuclear strike “at the heart of the United States” if Washington attempts regime change, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Wednesday, citing a report from the communist nation’s official news agency KCNA.

“Should the US dare to show even the slightest sign of attempt to remove our supreme leadership, we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the US with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time,” KCNA quoted a spokesman from the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang as saying.
The threat reportedly comes in response to remarks by the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Mike Pompeo, who is said to have alluded to regime change at a forum last week.
Pompeo reportedly said the most important thing the US can do is “separate [nuclear] capacity and someone who might well have [nuclear] intent and break those two apart.”

KCNA quoted the Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that Pompeo’s remarks “have gone over the line, and it has now become clear that the ultimate aim of the Trump administration ... is the regime change.”

“If the supreme dignity of the DPRK is threatened, [North Korea] must pre-emptively annihilate those countries and entities that are directly or indirectly involved in it by mobilizing all kinds of strike means including the nuclear ones,” the spokesman said further, according to KCNA.