North Korea has canceled one of the key joint cooperation projects with South Korea planned for next month’s Winter Olympics, officials said, further demonstrating the delicate nature of ties between the rivals split for seven decades.
North Korea on Monday night sent a message saying that it would not hold a joint cultural event at the North’s Mount Kumgang on Sunday to mark the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the South Korean Ministry of Unification said.
The ministry cited North Korea as saying that it has no option but to cancel the project because of South Korean media reports that it says defamed its “sincere” measures for the Olympics.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Korean Sport and Olympic Committee handout
The North also accused South Korean media of picking a fight over an unspecified domestic festival in North Korea, the ministry said.
South Korea considers the North’s decision “very regrettable,” it added.
The North did not say which media reports were at issue, but some reports had criticized the North’s plan to stage a major event to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of its military on Feb. 8, just one day before the Olympics’ opening ceremony.
South Korean officials have said the North plans a massive military parade on the anniversary.
It was not clear how the latest development would affect other planned Olympics-related cooperation projects between the Koreas. They have agreed to field a joint women’s ice hockey team and have their athletes parade together under a single flag during the opening ceremony on Friday next week.
A dozen North Korean hockey players last week arrived in South Korea to practice with their South Korean teammates.
North Korea has a history of last-minute cancelations and unexplained reversals, and some experts have said it might have sought to gain concessions from the South.
The visit earlier this month of a prominent band leader to inspect artistic venues in the South was delayed by North Korea, but eventually took place.
The two nations’ reconciliatory mood followed a year of heightened animosities over North Korea’s nuclear program.
Many analysts have said the North might want to use improved ties with South Korea to weaken US-led international pressure and sanctions on the country.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in