N. Korea cancels S. Korea visit by advance team for art troupe
North Korea on Friday abruptly canceled plans to send a delegation led by the head of a hugely popular girl band to South Korea over the weekend to check preparations for a trip by a North Korean art troupe she also leads during next month’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said North Korea didn’t explain why it was “suspending” the two-day visit by the seven-member advance team that it proposed just hours earlier through a cross-border communication channel.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the visit, which was to begin on Saturday, was permanently canceled or postponed. The ministry said it will try to gather further information from the North regarding the decision.
The rival Koreas earlier this week agreed that the 140-member Samjiyon art troupe, which will include singers, dancers and orchestra members, will perform twice in South Korea during the games in a sign of warming ties between the countries. It will be part of a North Korean Olympic delegation that will also include athletes, officials, state media reporters, a cheering group and a taekwondo demonstration team.
South Korea has also proposed that it send a 12-member delegation to North Korea on Tuesday to inspect preparations for a joint cultural event at the North’s scenic Diamond Mountain and a training session between non-Olympic skiers at the North’s Masik ski resort ahead of the Olympics in the South, the ministry said.
