South Korea is bringing forward a plan to create a specialist unit tasked with eliminating key members of the North Korean leadership in the event of war breaking out on the peninsula.

The new brigade will target key members of the regime in an effort to disrupt the command-and-control structure of the North Korean military, but also to paralyse Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction capabilities.

It will train to eliminate Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, at any one of his numerous residences and compounds across the country, as well as his key military and political henchmen.