South Korea and the United States pressed ahead with a regular joint military exercise this week amid renewed inter-Korean exchanges ahead of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, a defense official here said Thursday.

The four-day Warrior Strike drill involved American troops, including those from the 2nd Infantry Division, stationed in Korea, as well as some South Korean soldiers. It ended earlier in the day with no related announcement by either side, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The routine practice aims to bolster the combat readiness of the allies, simulating various situations, including the removal of North Korea's weapons of mass destruction.

It's far smaller than the allies' annual combined exercises -- Key Resolve and Foal Eagle.

South Korea and the US have agreed to postpone those drills until after the end of the Feb. 9-25 PyeongChang Games, which will be held in the South's eastern town of PyeongChang, 80 kilometers south of the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.

The North is sending a delegation to the Olympics. The South's liberal Moon Jae-in administration is eager to prevent tensions from escalating before and during the first Olympics to open in the country in three decades.

Multiple sources said this year's Foal Eagle training is provisionally scheduled to kick off on April 1 in the wake of the Paralympic Games slated for March 9-18.

The Stars and Stripes, a US military newspaper, also reported that this week's Warrior Strike training was mainly designed to "validate the combat effectiveness" of Texas-based 1st Cavalry Division soldiers who have been sent to finish a nine-month rotation in Korea.(Yonhap)