SEOUL TO SEND K-POP SINGERS TO PYONGYANG
160 South Koreans will visit the North for the first such performances in more than a decade
AGROUP of South Korea’s K-Pop singers will visit Pyongyang from March 31, the South said yesterday, a reciprocal visit after North Korea sent performers to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
About 160 of the South Koreans will visit the North until April 3, the South’s Unification Ministry said, for the first such performances in more than a decade.
The group will include girl group Red Velvet and music industry veterans Cho Yong-pil and Lee Sun-hee, the ministry said, after talks on the performances between the neighbours’ delegations at the truce border village of Panmunjom.
Cho was the last South Korean singer to perform in the North at a concert in Pyongyang in 2005.
“While we’re on the stage, I believe it will be difficult to portray personal feelings towards denuclearisation,” said singer and record producer Yoon Sang, who led the South’s delegation in yesterday’s talks.
“Our first task will be to instil the same awe in North Korean audiences as we do our South Korean ones and make sure nothing is awkward.”
Further negotiations, such as deciding on songs, would be done in writing, he said.
The visitors will hold two shows in Pyongyang, one at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre, which was the backdrop to a landmark performance by the New York Philharmonic in 2008.
The other show will be at the Ryukyung Chung Ju Yung Gymnasium, which was a joint project between the North and South, named after Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung.
Officials will visit the North from tomorrow to Saturday to inspect the sites and ensure they can accommodate the singers, the ministry said.
The deal is the latest step in the detente that began after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said at the beginning of the year that he intended to improve ties.
North Korea has since agreed to hold summits with the South and the United States, apart from participating last month in the Olympics in South Korea.