MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. /TASS/. The United States and South Korea will hold the new "Dong Maeng" ("Alliance") combined military exercise on March 4-12 to replace the discontinued Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills, Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday citing South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and the South Korean-US Combined Forces Command.

"Dong Maeng, which means alliance in English, has been modified from the previously held spring exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle and will focus on strategic, operational and tactical aspects of general military operations on the Korean Peninsula," they said in a joint press release.

South Korea's Defense Ministry and the US Department of Defense earlier said that they decided to discontinue the joint Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military exercise "to back diplomacy for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." The decision was made by South Korea's Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan during their telephone conversation on Saturday.

The move followed the two-day summit in Hanoi between US President Donald Trump and Nortk Korean leader Kim Jong Un. After several meetings on February 27-28, Trump and Kim decided not to sign a joint document but agreed to continue dialogue.