South Korea and the United States will launch their annual large-scale military exercise this month to bolster readiness against North Korean threats, the allies said Thursday.

Threat posed by Pyongyang's growing nuclear arsenal and advancing missile technology will be the focus of the exercise

Relations between the two Koreas were at an all time low in years under South Korea’s former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached over his martial law declaration last December, as the two sides engaged in tit-for-tat psychological warfare campaigns.