More on the forthcoming Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, where the host South Koreans are making every effort to ensure that the North Koreans turn them into a propaganda triumph for Kim Jong-un:
North Korea's Samjiyon Orchestra will perform in the South Korean resort of Gangneung the day before the Winter Olympics start in nearby Pyeongchang.
North Korea sent a message to South Korea on Tuesday night that the orchestra will perform at Gangneung Culture and Art Center on Feb. 8 and at the National Theater of Korea in Seoul on Feb. 11, the Unification Ministry said.
The two venues apparently found favor with the bandleader, Hyon Song-wol, who made a widely publicized inspection tour of potential venues over the weekend.
The first performance coincides with a massive military parade in Pyongyang to mark the 70th army founding anniversary. The musicians will arrive in Gangneung on Feb. 6 and return to Pyongyang on Feb. 12.
The North also confirmed that it will send 12 female ice hockey players to compete in a unified team with South Korean athletes in the Olympics, together with a coach and two support personnel.
The International Olympic Committee agreed on Saturday that the ice hockey team will consist of 23 South Korean women, who have qualified for the Olympics, and the 12 North Koreans, who have not.
That is, the South Korean team have trained hard and have qualified for the event: the North Koreans are not up to the same standard, but politics here takes precedence over the small matter of sport. What are the Olympics for, after all, if not for politicians to feel good about themselves?
The Samjiyon Orchestra, as we've seen, would appear to be an extended version of the famed Moranbong band, noted for their glamour and their bombastic glorification of the Kim regime.
More on the rescheduled military parade here.
Meanwhile, a spot of bother, as reported by Richard Lloyd Parry in the Times (£):
North Korea has demanded an apology and threatened to pull out of the Winter Olympics after protesters in Seoul burnt a photograph of Kim Jong-un.
The demonstration at the South Korean capital’s main railway station on Monday was witnessed by a passing delegation from Pyongyang.
The protesters, numbering a few dozen and including members of the right-wing Korea Patriots Party, chanted anti-Kim slogans before burning a photograph of the North Korean leader and the country’s flag.
The North Korean delegation did not react immediately to the display, but an article published by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency yesterday made clear the anger that the protest provoked. Headlined “We Will Never Pardon S. Korean Conservative Forces’ Shuddering Hideous Crime”, it denounced the incident as “an intolerable mockery of the sincerity and efforts being made by the DPRK for the improvement of the north-south relations and a deliberate political provocation to turn the Olympics into a theatre for escalating confrontation”.
The 900-word statement condemned the protesters as the “dregs of history”, “conservative riff-raffs”, a “despicable group of gangsters” and “human rejects devoid of appearance as human beings”. It called on South Korea to “throw overboard those rubbish so that they would not give off stinking smell anymore”, and demanded an apology and an assurance that the protesters would be punished.
It concluded: “If the north-south agreement and schedules for the DPRK’s participation in the Olympics are cancelled the blame will wholly rest with the South Korean authorities.”
All bluff, of course. It's most unlikely that the North will be pulling out at this stage. Or at least for this reason. But the point has been made, and the dutiful and compliant South will take note. Indeed they already have, as reported in the Chosun Ilbo - Seoul Tells N.Korean Defectors to Lie Low During Olympics:
The government has told prominent North Korean defector Thae Yong-ho and others to refrain from criticizing the North during the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang lest they spoil the mood....
The government is desperate to keep up a festive mood of rapprochement with the oppressive regime and has quailed at cheerfully abusive reporting about the North by the popular press here. Yet North Korea plans a massive military parade in Pyongyang just a day before the Olympics start, suggesting that the appeasement is all one way....
Defectors said South Korean security officials have approached Thae, the former No. 2 man in the North Korean Embassy in London, and other relatively senior defectors to refrain from talking to the media and appearing in public during the Olympics.
One source said, "The request was ostensibly made out of concern for their safety, but it sounded like a warning not to pour cold water on the event."
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