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The tyrannical leader has promised 2017 will be the year Pyongyang fires their first nuclear ICBM capable of reaching the US.

Incredible photographs show the US Marine Corps training with their South Korean counterparts in the snowy mountains just 80 miles from the border with North Korea.

Seoul has warned Washington and the world to take the threat from Kim's beggar kingdom seriously as they fear both invasion and a nuclear strike from the North.

(Image: GETTY)

Images show fully-armed marines wearing winter camouflage trekking through the snowy landscape of the mountainous region.

Troopers are armed with white-painted machine guns to blend in with the snow, skis, and gigantic kit bags.

US Marines are seen shirtless in the snow wrestling with their South Korean counterparts to train their endurance.

(Image: GETTY) (Image: GETTY)

Dictator Kim has swelled the size of the North Korean army to 1.3 million amid fears he could be plotting an invasion of the South.

Pyongyang has been ramping up their war rhetoric in the face of Donald Trump's elections – with US spooks warning Kim could test a nuke "within weeks" of Inauguration Day.

US Marines Corps are stationed in Japan alongside a new cohort of F-35b Lightning fighter planes to scare off Kim.

At the start of the hard-nosed troopers rotation, Major General Richard Simcock talked up the power of the US in the Pacific.

He said: "I do not believe that the best days of the United States are behind us. "

The Major added: "“Every time that our nation is misjudged by our adversaries, we’re seen as weak or distracted, and they think, ‘We can take them down,’ they get hurt.

“We’re still a superpower, no question about it. That gets lost sometimes.”