Kim fears strike by Seals

Increasingly aggressive Kim Jong-un has a history of going to extreme measures to shore up his reign over North Korea. Photo / AP

Ex-KGB agents hired to train bodyguards, new report claims.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un lives in constant fear of assassination and has reportedly hired Russian ex-KGB bodyguards to protect him in case of an attempt on his life.

Japan's Asahi Shinbum newspaper has reported that Kim hired about 10 former KGB counter-terrorism agents to train his bodyguards on how to detect and respond to terrorist attacks, says the business news website, Business Insider Australia.

The KGB, the former Soviet Union's main security and spy agency, had decades of practice in defending high-value targets against attempts at regime change.

The source told Asahi Shinbum that Kim was particularly scared of US advanced-weapons systems, like the Grey Eagle drone the United States is set to operate in South Korea in 2018.

However, it's unclear how counter-terrorism bodyguards could protect Kim against a high-flying drone raining down bombs.

South Korean media has reported that the US and South Korea have been working together on a "decapitation force" [military speak for removal of a leader] to kill Kim in the event that Pyongyang becomes intolerably aggressive.

Kim has a history of going to extreme measures to shore up his reign over North Korea, with some reports saying he killed his half-brother Kim Jong-nam to thwart a Chinese-backed coup attempt.

Last month Newsweek magazine reported Kim is so fearful of being assassinated by US Navy Seals that he will only travel at night and uses various cars belonging to his subordinates.

Osama bin Laden, the founder and head of al-Qaeda, was killed in a raid in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, by Navy Seals.

Bin Laden.

South Korean National Intelligence services told a closed door parliamentary session that Kim had stopped using his Mercedes-Benz to avoid detection, Lee Cheol-woo, from the Liberty Party of Korea, who attended the meeting, told the Korea Herald newspaper.