N.K. art troupe heads to venue for Olympic performance

SEOUL/DONGHAE, Feb. 7 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's art troupe headed to a sub-host city of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics Wednesday for its planned performance after getting off a North Korean ship that carried the group a day earlier. The Samjiyon art troupe traveled to the South by ferry Tuesday to perform in celebration of the Winter Games on a rare trip that involved Seoul temporary exempting a North Korean ship's sea travel from its sanctions. The 140-member art troupe, called the Samjiyon Orchestra, plans to perform in Gangneung, a sub-host city of the Feb. 9-25 Winter Games, on Thursday and in Seoul on Sunday. Hyon Song-wol, the head of the art troupe, and Kwon Hyok-bong, a senior official at the North's culture ministry, got off the ferry first with smiles on their faces. They were followed by female musicians wearing red coats, black fur hats and ankle boots as well as male musicians clad in black coats and hats. North Korean vessels are not allowed to visit South Korea under Seoul's unilateral sanctions banning inter-Korean exchanges, which were imposed on May 24, 2010, to punish the North's sinking of a South Korean warship. But the government has decided to make the art troupe's sea travel for the Winter Games an exception to the sanctions. The two Koreas have engaged in a flurry of sports diplomacy since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un extended a rare olive branch to Seoul in his New Year's message after a year of tensions sparked by the North's nuclear and missile provocations. Hyon is the leader of the all-female Moranbong Band, created by an order of Kim Jong-un in July 2012. Hyon, an alternate member of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), visited the South last month to check performance venues in the two cities. Earlier in the day, there were no anti-North Korea activists at the port rallying against the art troupe's arrival. Members from conservative civic groups burnt North Korea's flag and a photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday in protest of the North's participation in the Games. North Korea's state media condemned them Wednesday for having staged "a never-to-be-condoned farce of confrontation." North Korea told the South at their talks last month that the concerts will likely consist of folk songs and masterpieces that fit the theme of unification and are well known to both South Koreans and North Koreans. Other details have not been made public, but the North informed the South last week that many South Korean songs will be included in the programs. It will be the first performance by North Koreans in the South since 2002, when Pyongyang sent a cohort of 30 singers and dancers from several music and performance groups to Seoul for a joint event. sooyeon@yna.co.kr (END)