South Korea has announced plans to join a US drill set to be held in the Western Pacific in a show of force against North Korea.

The South Korean military announced in a statement on Friday that a total of seven South Korean navy vessels would join 14 US warships off the eastern coast of the United States.

The statement added that air artillery strikers will also be part of the drills.

The military exercise will be held from Saturday to Tuesday.

Earlier, the Pentagon had announced that three nuclear aircraft carrier strike groups would carry out an operation together for the first time in a decade.

The drill would come at a time of harsh rhetoric between the US and North Korea and days after US President Donald Trump visited South Korea and Japan.