South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold their first joint military training next month to practice their cooperation on detecting signs of missile launches from North Korea.

Seoul's Defense Ministry says the drills set for around June 28 will be held on the sidelines of multinational naval exercises scheduled for waters of Hawaii from June to August.

It says the trilateral drills will involve Aegis-equipped ships from each of the three countries, but that they will not involve missile-interception training.

The training is a result of the 2014 intelligence-gathering pact among the three countries designed to better cope with North Korea's increasing nuclear and missile threats.