Training for decapitation strikes to take out North Korean leader Kim Jong Un remains an “option” for South Korea’s military, defense minister Shin Won-sik said Monday, as the U.S. and ROK kicked off joint special operations drills.

Shin’s remarks represented a rare public mention of the fact that Seoul retains plans for assassinating the DPRK leader, a strategy that Pyongyang has repeatedly denounced in the past and used to justify the development and potential use of weapons of mass destruction.

In an MBN television interview on Monday, a reporter asked the ROK defense chief if South Korea is open to