SEOUL - The United States and South Korea are to hold annual military exercises on the Korean peninsula soon, the first since the recent change of leadership in North Korea.

There had been speculation that the joint U.S -South Korean military drills might be postponed or called off this year. But on Friday, the U.S. and South Korea militaries announced the annual exercises would go ahead.

This year two military exercises are planned. A command post exercise, named "Key Resolve" involving 2,100 U.S. personnel, including 800 coming from Japan and elsewhere, as well as 200,000 South Korean troops, is to start on February 27.

Members of the U.N. Command, as well as officers from Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark and Norway, are to observe.

U.S. military officials describe it as a training exercise, which will last until March 9, focusing on crisis management.

It will overlap with the start of a two-month joint tactical field training exercise from March 1 through April 30, known as "Foal Eagle".

Estimated 11,000 U.S. forces and as yet undecided number of South Korean military divisions and smaller-sized units will participate in the exercises.

North Korea's army has been informed of the exercise dates and given assurance that it would be a non-provocative training, claimed the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNMAC).

There has been some apprehension that the war games might give North Korea's young, untested leader, Kim Jong Un, an excuse to flex his muscles to bolster national unity and his own credentials. He succeeded his late father Kim Jong Il last month.

Contending that the joint exercises are a provocation and a prelude to an invasion, Pyongyang has repeatedly called for the annual joint exercises to be scrapped.

The Korean peninsula has been under a tense armistice since 1953.

The three-year Korean civil war, which also involved U.S.-led United Nations forces on the side of the South and Chinese troops fighting for the North, ended with a truce. No peace treaty has been signed.

Downplaying the concerns, Professor Kim Yeon-su, a specialist on North Korea, at the National Defense University in Seoul, has pointed to Pyongyang's New Year's remarks, carried in the state media, calling 2012 a year for improving the lives of its citizens.

So North Korea can be expected to focus on economic development rather than responding to routine annual training drills by the United States and South Korea with a military provocation, Kim added.

Meanwhile, South Korea Friday allowed members of a private group to accompany food aid across the border to North Korea for the first time since the death of Kim Jong Il last month.

Seoul's Unification Ministry said members of a private group were traveling with the 180 tons of flour aid, which is intended for children.

Seoul allowed a shipment of aid earlier this month but no civilians accompanied it.

South Koreans are not allowed to visit the North without government permission.