Even though he's the supreme leader of his country, Kim Jong Un has reportedly been living like a hunted man out of fear that the US and South Korea are collaborating on a special forces team to take him out in case of a contingency.
South Korean intelligence services told lawmakers recently that the moves of US and South Korean forces make Kim "extremely nervous,"according to the Korea Herald. Apparently, Kim has been riding in his subordinates' cars and making fewer public appearances.
In March, South Korean media reported that the US Navy's SEAL Team 6, the same group that pulled off the 2011 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan had arrived in South Korea for a joint-training exercise.
The Pentagon maintains that the US does not train for decapitation strikes of any kind, but with the threat from North Korea growing hotter every day, and civilian casualties like Otto Warmbier, it may be that its preparing a quick strike option in case of an untenable provocation from the Kim regime.
The US would not confirm the presence of Navy SEALs in South Korea, but it did announce the arrival of the USS Michigan, a submarine that sometimes carries special operations forces.
“Kim is so engrossed with collecting information about the ‘decapitation operation’ through his intelligence agency," Rep. Lee Cheol-woo told the Korea Herald.
Kim recently took the bold step of assassinating his half brother, Kim Jong Nam, in Malaysia, possibly to head off an outside attempt to install a new Kim governement in North Korea.
"Imagine you're the president. North Korea is a human-rights abuser and an exporter of dangerous technology,"Ken Geers, a cybersecurity expert for Comodo with experience in the National Security Agency, previously told Business Insider. "Responsible governments really need to think about ways to handle North Korea, and one of the options is regime change."
But the fact remains that a raid on Kim's palace within North Korea would be much, much more difficult than the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. US forces would have to navigate air defenses in one of the most heavily protected spaces on earth as well as risking a nuclear response even if their mission is successful.
Nevertheless, the Korea Herald reports that the US and South Korea will have completed a team that can take out Kim and paralyze the country's command and control systems by the end of this year.
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