North Korea Kim Jong-un military drills
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends a demonstration of a new large-calibre multiple rocket launching system at an unknown location, in this undated file photo KCNA via Reuters

North Korea has threatened to take down South Korea's proposed special units, which are intended to target the Kim Jong-un regime in case of a war. Pyongyang said that the special units would be wiped out the moment a conflict breaks out in the divided Korean peninsula.

A report in Rodong Sinmun, Pyongyang's state-run mouthpiece, warned that Seoul's latest step is tantamount to declaration of war against its regime. It further said that the North is prepared to tackle such provocative acts by the Seoul.

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"The special unit will be the first target of our precision military strikes if it attempts to hit our leadership," the editorial in the paper read, responding to South Korea's announcement of setting up dedicated forces to target positions of North Korea's leadership in the event of a full-fledged conflict.

Pyongyang further warned that even minor accidents could snowball into a bigger conflict in the Korean peninsula. The North is expected to carry out an aggressive act in the coming months, if not weeks, to coincide US-South Korea joint drills scheduled for March 2017.

"We are closely monitoring the situation as we see a high possibility of a North Korean provocation around the time of the joint military drill," a South Korean government official was quoted as saying.

The South's defence policy in 2017 said that plans to bolster the special unit are being advanced by two years to counter the increasing missile activities under Kim's regime.