Kim Jong-un has ignored calls to back down from his reckless nuclear war and missile testing programme and has instead repeatedly threatened to destroy America, South Korea and Japan.
Sanctions and threats from the West have so far failed to stop the despot but officials are plotting a new way to intimidate North Korea.
The South Korean and US defence chiefs will this week meet kitted out in full military uniform – a move designed to leave Kim trembling.
South Korean Defence Minister Song Young-moo said he and US Secretary of Defence James Mattis plan to wear their respective uniforms during a joint warning.
Mr Mattis will wear a Marines uniform rather than a suit while Mr Song will wear a Navy combat uniform.
Mr Song said: “I offered that to Secretary of Defence Mattis and he responded positively without hesitation.”
He said the event would send a “highly symbolic but strong message” to North Korea, South Korean-based news agency Yonhap News said.
Mr Song said the meeting will serve as an opportunity to show North Korea how “iron-clad” opposition to Kim was.
He said: “What’s more important is to demonstrate the ironclad alliance and reaffirm the US plan to send those assets promptly when they are necessary.”
However he stopped short of calling for US nuclear weapons to be brought to South Korea.
He said: “As there are virtually no time and space constraints with the development of weapons systems, the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons is not that meaningful.
“We are reviewing various factors. The Navy and the Ministry of National Defence have commissioned related studies on international law and other elements.
“I think it’s also a matter of our government’s will and budget.”
It comes after North Korea threatened to “destroy” the USA – with one particularly vicious article in a Pyongyang-based newspaper slating Donald Trump and his team as “lunatics”.
The propaganda rag said: “The lunatic hysteria of the US will precipitate its own destruction.
“The army and people of the DPRK turned out as one, rallied closer around respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and are now dynamically advancing toward the final victory.
“If the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces make a small spark in the sphere where the DPRK exercises its sovereignty, our revolutionary armed forces will scorch the bases of aggression and provocation to make them impossible to live.”