I have a good friend that was in GulfWar I. One of the "rewards" he had for his men was letting them play with captured weapons (except grenades). One day he had acquired a folding stock AK that belong to a Republican Guard(he no longer had a use for it), he decided to destroy it. He shot mag after mag, after mag until the handguards caught fire. He threw it in the sand to put it out, and proceeded to stomp it out. He then picked it back up, cleared the next round and continued to fire it.No failures. He brought home as a "War Trophy", and when I examined it the burnt handguards were still intact.
Biff(from this board) had his Maadi RPK so hot at Bulletfest it turned the barrel white. (I'll post a pic of this tonight)
In short...no you can't kill'em they were designed that way!