ASIA / PACIFIC
February 5, 2018
Head of popular girl band leads
North Korean team to South Korea
By Hyung-Jin Kim
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
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The Associated Press
S
EOUL, South Korea — The
head of a hugely popular
North Korean girl band last
month crossed the heavily fortified
border into South Korea to check
preparations for rare performances
by an art troupe she also leads during
the Winter Olympics.
Appearing live on South Korean
television, Hyon Song Wol didn’t
speak when she walked past a crowd
of reporters, onlookers, and a barrage
of camera flashes before boarding an
express train at Seoul’s railway
station for the eastern city of
Gangneung, where her art troupe is
scheduled to perform during the
PyeongChang Olympics.
She is the leader of Pyongyang’s
all-female Moranbong Band, which
was handpicked by leader Kim Jong
Un. She’s been the subject of intense
South Korean media attention since
she attended talks at the border that
struck an agreement on the
140-member Samjiyon art troupe’s
two performances — one in Seoul and
the other in Gangneung, where some
of the games will take place. After the
talks, North Korea said Hyon would
also lead the Samjiyon art troupe,
whose performances would be the
first by a North Korean group in
South Korea since 2002.
With no official media access given
to Hyon, TV stations broadcast live
footage of her bus moving on Seoul’s
roads before arriving at the railway
station, where hundreds of police
officers were mobilized to maintain
order. Photos showed a smiling Hyon
shaking heads with a South Korean
official upon arrival at the border.
Later, wearing a dark winter coat and
fur scarf and with half her hair tied to
the back, she looked more serious
with an expressionless face.
Hyon’s arrival came hours after the
International Olympic Committee
(IOC) allowed 22 North Korean
athletes to take part in the Olympics
in exceptional entries given to the
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ALL-FEMALE BAND. Hyon Song Wol, the head of the hugely popular North Korean all-female
Moranbong Band (pictured), recently crossed the heavily fortified border into South Korea to check
preparations for rare performances by an art troupe she also leads during the Winter Olympics. (AP
Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)
North. Among the 22 are 12 women singers, and dancers, is part of North
who are joining South Korea’s female Korea’s Olympic delegation that also
hockey team in the Koreas’ first-ever includes athletes, officials, journal-
unified Olympic team. The other ists, and a taekwondo demonstration
sports events the North Koreans will team.
compete in are figure skating, short-
Hyon was a popular singer before
track speed skating, Alpine skiing, she was appointed to lead the
and cross-country skiing.
Moranbong Band, which serves as
The 22 North Korean athletes will the “soft” public face of the Kim
march together with South Korean government. Its members in short
players under a single “unification skirts and high heels or stylish
flag” depicting their peninsula during military uniforms sing and dance
the opening ceremony in Pyeong- odes to Kim. There is speculation that
Chang. “Such an agreement would some of the Moranbong members
have seemed impossible only a few may also appear with the Samjiyon
weeks ago,” IOC chief Thomas Bach art troupe, which observers say was
said in Lausanne, Switzerland.
likely hastily formed ahead of
The current mood of reconciliation Olympics-related talks with South
between the Koreas flared after Kim Korea.
abruptly expressed his willingness to
Under a deal with South Korea, the
improve ties and send a delegation to Samjiyon group is to play folk songs
the Olympics during his annual New and classic masterpieces that are
Year’s address. Outside critics dis- well-known to both Koreas and fit in
missed Kim’s overture as a tactic to with the theme of unification. An
use improved ties with Seoul to attempt by the group to perform any
weaken U.S.-led international sanc- propaganda piece would trigger
tions over North Korea’s advancing protests from conservatives in South
nuclear and missile programs.
Korea. The Moranbong Band can-
Hyon, who is also an alternate celled its planned 2015 performance
member of the ruling party’s Central in Beijing at the last minutes after
Committee, travelled with six other Beijing wanted to replace a missile
North Koreans.
launch scene from the background of
The Samjiyon art troupe, which the stage, according to South Korea
comprises
orchestra
members, media.
North Korean flag flies in South before Olympic Games opens
By Hyung-Jin Kim
The Associated Press
G
ANGNEUNG,
South Korea — In
a rare sight, North
Korean flags flew in South
Korea in late January as
the South prepares for the
Winter Olympics that has
brought a temporary lull to
tensions surrounding the
North’s nuclear program.
The Olympic village in
Gangneung turned into a
selfie site as volunteer
workers posed under a
North Korean flag that has
been raised in the country
for the first time since a
hockey tournament in
April last year. North
Korean flags were also
raised at the other athletes’
village in PyeongChang
and stadiums in both
PyeongChang and Gang-
neung where North Korean
athletes are expected to
compete during the games,
according
to
Pyeong-
Chang’s Olympic organ-
izing committee.
North Korea is sending
22 athletes to the Pyeong-
Chang Games that start
this week, including 10
North Korean skiers and
skaters who arrived in the
South via a rare flight
between the war-separated
rivals.
Twelve
North
Korean female ice hockey
players were already in the
South practicing with their
South Korean teammates
for a unified team that will
compete during the Olym-
pics.
“It feels amazing (that
they are coming),” said
Choi So Eun, a 21-year-old
college student who volun-
teered for translation and
other work during the
Olympics, during an inter-
view at the Gangneung
athletes’ village. Choi
Sangyoung, another volun-
teer worker, said he hopes
Continued on page 7
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