The United States and South Korea began a week of military drills Monday in waters off South Korea's east coast, days after North Korea accused the U.S. of provocation by sending the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan to the tense Korean Peninsula.

The Multinational Mine Warfare Exercise is designed to train units in detecting and "neutralizing" sea mines to protect navigation routes, the Navy said in a statement.

The U.S. 7th Fleet's extensive contributions to the exercises include the carrier as well as two destroyers — the USS Stethem and the USS Mustin. Fighter jets, helicopters and 40 naval ships and submarines will take part, officials said.

“This exercise is an incredible opportunity for our forces and our staff to conduct complex mine countermeasure operations with our much-valued allies and friends," said Capt. Jim Miller, chief of the Mine Countermeasures Squadron.

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The drills are aimed at practicing how to respond to a potential naval provocation by North Korea and improving the allies’ combined operational capability, said Jang Wook, a spokesman for South Korea’s navy.

The U.S. also sent four advanced fighter jets — two F-22s and two F-35s — to an air show and exhibition in Seoul that are to begin Tuesday. Last week, the U.S. flew two B-1B supersonic bombers from its air base in Guam to South Korea.

The drills are the latest in a long series of joint exercises between the two nations that have infuriated North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korea didn’t immediately respond to the start of the drills. On Friday, the North’s foreign ministry accused the U.S. of provoking the country by mobilizing the aircraft carrier and other war assets near the peninsula.

Kim Kwang Hak, a researcher for Pyongyang's Institute for American Studies, warned in a commentary published Friday by the North's state media that a "salvo of missiles" would be directed toward Guam if the U.S. "provocations" continued.

“We have already warned several times that we will take counteractions for self-defense, including a salvo of missiles into waters near the U.S. territory of Guam," the researcher wrote.

“The U.S. military action hardens our determination that the U.S. should be tamed with fire and lets us take our hand closer to ‘trigger’ for taking the toughest countermeasure,” the researcher said.

In August, North Korea issued a similar threat, saying its military had presented Kim Jong Un with plans to launch intermediate-range missiles to create “enveloping fire” near Guam, a key U.S. military hub in the Pacific.

Under Kim’s leadership, North Korea has been accelerating its efforts to bolster its weapons arsenals and acquire the capability to fire nuclear missiles at any target in the U.S. mainland. The North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September and test-launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July.

Contributing: The Associated Press