South Korea and the US began on Monday joint military headquarters exercises, RIA Novosti reported.

The Combined Forces Command said in a statement on Monday that the two militaries will conduct the new exercise, named “Dong Maeng” in Korean, or “Alliance” in English, and other lower-level drills to replace the Foal Eagle field training. The Alliance drills are to run for nine days — half the duration of the computer-simulated Key Resolve tabletop exercise.

The US and South Korea hope that a reduction of drills will contribute to the process of denuclearizing the North Korea.

Pyongyang usually strongly opposes the holding of annual South Korean-US maneuvers, considering them to be a preparation for a potential invasion of North Korea.