Scores of former North Korean soldiers who defected to South Korea will this week form a group aimed at toppling the regime with the help of serving soldiers there, one of its leaders said Monday.

Some 200 ex-soldiers will Thursday launch the NK People's Liberation Front, Jang Ce-Yul, the group's secretary general, told AFP.

"We still stay in touch with many of our former colleagues in the military, and many of them are fully aware they can't survive long under Kim Jong-Il's regime," said Jang, who defected two years ago.

"We will provide aid to help them bring down the North's regime at the hands of the North Korean people and military."

He said the group would help smuggle publications, videos and other material into the tightly-controlled country and circulate them among the North's soldiers.

Jang said Hwang Jang-Yop, a former top official who defected to the South in 1997, will be an adviser.

The group plans several projects with current members of the North's military and anti-regime groups to "weaken the military's loyalty" to Kim, said Jang.

He refused to give details, citing concerns about the security of former military colleagues still in the communist state.

The group said on its website (http://www.nkplf.com) it will also release Thursday a recently recorded phone conversation with a senior North Korean army officer to demonstrate its links to the military there.

Its members at the inauguration ceremony on Thursday -- the anniversary of the founding of North Korea -- will also stage a performance simulating the assassination of leader Kim, the website said.

South Korea has numerous organisations representing refugees from the North or campaigning against the regime, but this will be the first to link former soldiers.

Around 19,000 North Koreans have fled the North for the South since the end of the 1950-53 war, the vast majority in recent years.

Despite its ailing economy and severe food shortages, the North's military totals almost 1.2 million members.