SEOUL, Feb. 10 -- South Korea on Monday stressed irrelevance of the agreed family reunion to the joint military exercises with the United States following the announcement of detail schedules for the annual drills.

Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Eui-do told a routine press briefing that the "Key Resolve" is an annually-held joint military exercise of defensive nature as explained several times before, saying that it has nothing to do with the family reunion event.

Kim noted that the reunion event should be carried out as agreed with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which has denounced the joint drills as the rehearsal for a northward invasion.

The Defense Ministry said Monday that South Korea-U.S. combined forces command will carry out the computer-simulated "Key Resolve" command post exercise from Feb. 24 to March 6. About 5,200 U.S. troops will participate in this year's exercise, higher than 3, 500 U.S. military servicemen's participation last year.

The "Foal Eagle" field training exercise, which involves ground, naval, air, expeditionary and special forces, will be conducted from Feb. 24 to April 18. Some 7,500 U.S. forces will join the annual exercise of field maneuvers, lower than some 10, 000 troops last year.

The scheduled military drills were widely expected to cause strong backlash from the DPRK, which agreed to hold reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War from Feb. 20 to Feb. 25 at the scenic Mount Kumgang resort in the DPRK's southeast coast. Dates for the reunion event overlap for two days with the military drills.

Pyongyang reiterated its call for cancellation of the joint military drills last Thursday, saying that dialogue and the rehearsal for war of aggression can never be compatible. The DPRK also criticized that the U.S. Air Force's nuclear-capable B-52 bomber flied over the South Korean westerns seas Wednesday when the two Koreas agreed to hold the humanitarian event.