Seoul To Set Up Special Unit To Conduct ‘Decapitation strike’ Against North’s Leadership

South Korea likely to set up a special brigade that will be tasked with conducting a “decapitation strike” against North Korea’s leadership to neutralize their wartime command-and-control system, local media reports.

The decapitation strike is a part of the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation scheme, a military campaign designed to take out Pyongyang’s leadership with ballistic and cruise missiles in the event of an imminent nuclear attack, The Korean Herald reports Tuesday.

“We are in the process of conceptualizing the plan,” said Defense Minister Song Young-moo on Monday, responding to lawmakers’ questions on whether the military could conduct a “decapitation strike” against North Korea’s leadership. “I believe we can create the unit by Dec. 1 and have it become operational”.

The unit, set to launch on December 1, will work alongside US special warfare units, such as SEAL Team Six, also known as DEVGRU, which engaged in the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden.

In a move to beef up Seoul’s military response to North Korea’s fast-advancing weapons program, US-South Korea have reached an agreement today to remove the limit on the payload of South Korean missiles under the allies' missile guideline.

The Seoul government is also seeking to strengthen coordination with the United States in the "peaceful pressure" campaign while encouraging China and Russia to play more constructive roles in resolving the nuclear stalemate.

The North conducted its sixth nuclear test on Sunday, claiming that it tested a hydrogen bomb that can be fitted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile. Experts say that the explosion was around five to six times more powerful than the previous one carried out in September last year.