2 Koreas in fresh talks on Winter Olympics
SEOUL (AFP) — North and South Korea began talks yesterday on performances by Pyongyang’s state artistic troupes at next month’s Winter Olympics in the South, after the North agreed to attend the Games.
Pyongyang agreed last week to send athletes, high-level officials and others to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, easing months of high tensions over its weapons programs.
The two sides agreed an art troupe would be part of the delegation. Four officials from each country started a working-level meeting to thrash out details on the northern side of the border village of Panmunjom soon after 10 a.m., Seoul’s unification ministry said.
The North’s delegates include Kwon Hyok-bong, a senior culture ministry official, as well as Hyon Song-wol, the leader of the North’s famed all-female Moranbong music band.
The 10-strong band, established in 2012 with members supposedly chosen by leader Kim Jong-un, is known for its Western-style, synthesizer-driven music and sophisticated fashion style rare in the isolated nation, although most of their songs praise the regime.
Their numbers include the jaunty “Mother’s Birthday,” about the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, and the more soulful “We Call Him Father,” an ode to leader Kim.
Such lyrics could fall foul of the South’s National Security Act, which bans praise for the North.
The band once canceled a planned performance in Beijing in 2015 and returned home after Chinese officials took issue with propaganda images on stage featuring Pyongyang’s long-range missiles.
Seoul should negotiate carefully to avoid the embarrassment of having the North’s propaganda being promoted at the Olympics, said Cheong Seong-chang, analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank.