The March 2-7 joint exercise will be the first to test Seoul's ability to wage war under a scenario in which South Korea has regained wartime control of its troops from the United States.

Rodong Sinmun, the North's communist party newspaper and main official mouthpiece, had a different view of the drill, which replaces a previous annual joint exercise between the two countries.

"The war exercise in South Korea is an intolerable crime against peace and reunification casting a chill over the Korean nation's desire for reunification and putting a brake on inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation," Rodong said.

The exercise "runs counter to the six-party talks," Rodong said. "Their aim is to ignite a war against the North when a chance presents itself, while wasting time under the pretext of the six-party talks."

North Korea staged its first nuclear test in October 2006, but later returned to six-party talks grouping the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

The countries agreed in February last year to a landmark aid-for-disarmament deal aimed at ending the North's nuclear programmes.

But the deal has been held up since Pyongyang missed a year-end deadline to disable its nuclear facilities and declare all relevant programmes.

US and South Korean military officials have defended the joint drill as a "defensive" military readiness exercise.

Near the heavily-fortified border with the North Sunday, a US Stryker platoon of armoured combat vehicles conducted the first firing drills since it travelled from Alaska last week to take part in the exercise.

The USS Ohio (SSGN 726), a nuclear-powered submarine armed with guided cruise missiles participating in the drill, Friday reached the southern port of Busan on Friday.

There are currently some 28,000 US troops backing up South Korea's 680,000-strong forces against any threat from the North's 1.1 million-member military.

The United States has stationed tens of thousands of troops in the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.

South Korea ceded operational control over its military to the US-led United Nations Command shortly after the outbreak of the war. It regained peacetime control over its own forces in 1994 and is due to regain wartime command over its troops by April 2012.

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