More arrivals from up North for joint celebration
of the upcoming winter games.
A cultural group crossed over to South Korea
via ferry... to put up 2 highly-anticipated
performances -- one in the sub host city of
Gangneung and the other in Seoul.
Ji Myung-kil has our top story.
The North Korean ferry, with the red letters
"Mangyongbong 92,"... arrived Tuesday in South
Korea at Mukho port in the city of Donghae
on the east coast.
South Korean officials gave a small welcoming
ceremony to the North Korean art troupe after
the ferry docked.
The Mangyongbong is a 97-hundred ton cargo-passenger
ferry named after a hill in Pyongyang near
the birthplace of North Korea's late founder
Kim Il-sung.
Seoul has temporarily lifted its ban on North
Korean ships entering its waters to allow
the ship to come.
The Mangyongbong 92 itself is not one of the
North Korean vessels blacklisted by the United
Nations or the U.S. on suspicion of involvement
in Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
The North Korean troupe will be using the
ship as lodging during the concert period
in Gangneung and is also a way for the North
to keep the artists from having contact with
South Koreans.
The North Korean artists will perform on Thursday
in the city of Gangneung on the eve of the
Winter Olympics.
Gangneung is hosting Olympic events including
women's ice hockey in which the two Koreas
will compete as a joint team... a first in
Olympic history.
The troupe will perform again on Sunday at
the National Theater of Korea in Seoul.
More North Koreans will be arriving in the
South Wednesday morning via the western land
route.
The 2-hundred-eighty member delegation consists
of four officials from the North's national
Olympic committee, 229 cheerleaders, 26 taekwondo
demonstrators and 21 journalists.
Ji Myung-kil, Arirang News.
