South Korea's undercover assassins primed to murder Kim

REUTER

South Korea's special forces are preparing for a cross-border assault

More than 1,000 primary targets across the demilitarised 

zone to be eliminated by missiles and laser-guided weapons

SOUTH Korea plans to send special forces killers into North Korea in a tricky bid to take out Kim Jong-un and his cronies if the despot sparks a war.

The daring proposal is among the top revisions being made to the under-fire country's revised strategy for dealing with a "conventional" attack by its noisy neighbour.

REUTERS

The country's president warned the assault could also come from the sea

REUTERS

The plan would involve taking out Kim and his military leaders

The South Korean president was briefed about the plan by senior military officials on Monday - just a day before Kim launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan.

Moon Jae-in told his ministry to implement reforms to the military to meet the challenges that are increasingly being posed by North Korea.

He added that the military should be ready to "quickly switch to an offensive posture in case North Korea stages a provocation that crosses the line", the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported.

The PM also requested the military increase its ability to quickly launch  airborne and sea landings.

In the event of a conventional conflict breaking out, North Korean army is expected to bombard the South along the DMZ as well as shelling the capital Seoul.

Under the existing US-South Korean defence plan - OPLAN 5015 - the two nations would bring their overwhelming air and naval superiority to bear from bases in South Korea and Japan.

These would be backed up by aircraft carrier fleets positioned  in the western Pacific.

The new South Korean plan will identify more than 1,000 primary targets in North Korea to be eliminated by missiles and laser-guided weapons.

These would nuclear weapons and missile launch facilities.

The military has also been tasked with training special forces units that could be infiltrated into Pyongyang in order to target key members of the regime, including Kim Jong-un.

AFP - GETTY

North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan at the weekend

AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS

US and South Korean troops kicked off their annual drills this week

Last week, Kim was seething over joint military drills between the US and South Korea as it frets they are practice for a "beheading operation" invasion spearheaded by Donald Trump.

The state-owned newspaper Rodong Sinmum ranted against the drills between thousands of troops on the Korean Peninsula - which, they think, is to eventually take out supreme leader Kim Jong-un.

Korea military preparations 'reckless nuclear war exercises'" auto="true"]

It claimed it is an "aggressive war scenario" as 67,000 US and South Korean troops take on drill exercises.

The paper wrote: “The rehearsal is concentrated on the drill of ‘beheading operation’ and ‘secret operation’ to ‘remove’ the supreme headquarters of the DPRK and one for countering the DPRK's ballistic rockets under ‘OPLAN 5015’, an aggressive war scenario to carry out pre-emptive strike against the DPRK

“The US will be wholly held accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by such reckless aggressive war manoeuvres, as it chose a military confrontation with the DPRK.”

Last week the troops began massive military drills involving 80,000 soldiers – including Brit troops – as Kim Jong-un warns the “reckless” actions could trigger a nuclear war.

The Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills were largely computer-simulated war games held every summer.

It saw the US and South Korea join forces in a string of exercises.

The annual drill involved huge land, air and sea exercises, with tens of thousands of troops involved from both countries.

The drills drew furious responses from North Korea, which views them as an invasion rehearsal.