Seoul to form kill Kim Jong-un squad

Seoul: South Korea will form a special military unit this year tasked with removing North Korea’s leadership in the event of war as Seoul looks for options to counter its rival’s nuclear weapons and missiles, an official said on Thursday.

The brigade, which will aim to remove the North Korea’s wartime command and paralyse its function if war breaks out, will be launched this year, according to an official from Seoul’s defecse ministry, who refused to be named, citing office rules.

The unit was originally planned to be ready by 2019. The official refused to say whether the unit will train to execute pre-emptive strikes.

The plan was included in defence minister Han Min Koo’s policy briefing to Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who became government caretaker upon President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment over a corruption scandal.

“Yes, we do have such a plan,” Mr Koo had told parliament in September. He had said that such a mission would be led by South Korean special forces. “South Korea has a general idea and plan to use precision missile capabilities to target the enemy’s facilities in major areas as well as eliminating the enemy’s leadership.”

North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and a slew of rocket test firings last year in attempts to expand its nuclear weapons and missile programme.

Following the North’s latest nuclear test in September, South Korea had argued that North Korean membership in the United Nations should potentially be revoked.

“North Korea’s repeated violations and non-compliance of Security Council resolutions and international norms is unprecedented and has no parallel in the history of the United Nations,” South Korea’s foreign minister Yun Byung Se had said in his remarks to the General Assembly, which had gathered in New York that month.

Following the development, the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff has now announced plans to strengthen its ability to conduct pre-emptive strikes.

It said a “Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation” system would use special forces and cruise missiles under development to destroy areas where North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the rest of the country’s decision-makers are located.