The leader of North Korea’s all-female Moranbong Band is today to head a delegation to South Korea to prepare cultural performances during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Seoul said, becoming the first North Korean official to visit for four years.
Hyon Song-wol, reputed to be an ex-girlfriend of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was the subject of lurid 2013 reports in the South that she and about a dozen other state musicians had been executed for appearing in pornographic movies.
The North angrily denied the claims and Hyon later appeared on state television.
The nuclear-armed North agreed last week to take part in the Pyeongchang Games, which are to take place just 80km south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides the Korean Peninsula, easing tensions over its weapons programs.
Pyongyang nominated her to head a seven-member advance team to inspect venues for proposed art performances in Seoul and the eastern city of Gangneung in connection with the Olympics, the South Korean Ministry of Unification said.
She is to be the first senior official from the North to visit the South proper since 2014, aside from talks on the southern side of the DMZ.
The ministry said the North identified Hyon as the head of the less well-known Samjiyon Orchestra, which is to make up much of the 140-member art troupe from the North.
The performances are to be the first of their kind since 2002, when Pyongyang sent a cohort of 30 singers and dancers to Seoul for a joint pro-unification event.
The two Koreas have agreed to march together under a unification flag — a pale blue silhouette of the whole Korean Peninsula — at the Games’ opening ceremony on Feb. 9, and to form a unified women’s ice hockey team.
Hyon was the second most senior delegate from the North when officials of the two Koreas met at the border truce village of Panmunjom on Monday to discuss the art performances.
The advance team is to enter the South overland and return tomorrow, the ministry added.
However, the planning comes amid reports that North Korea could be preparing a lavish display of its military strength on the eve of the Games.
However, satellite pictures of the airfield preparations appear to show far less activity than ahead of previous major displays, analysts said.
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