North Korea to send orchestra to Winter Olympics

North Korea will send a 230-strong cheering squad to the Winter Olympics in the South Korea next month, to improve North-South Korean relations. On Wednesday South Korea announced, the two sides prepare to present their plan for a “peace games”.
The group is largely made up of women musicians and most of its members play string instruments. They are known for giving classical song and dance performances and the Korean government says they play an important role in promoting friendship overseas.
North and South Korea have been talking since last week for the first time in more than two years about the Olympics, offering a respite from a months-long stand off over the North’s missile and nuclear programs, which it conducts in defiance of U.N. sanctions.
Twenty nations meeting in the Canadian city of Vancouver agreed on Tuesday to consider tougher sanctions to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned the North it could trigger a military response if it did not choose dialogue.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said the world should not be naive about North Korea’s “charm offensive” over the Olympics.
“It is not the time to ease pressure, or to reward North Korea,” Kono said.
The South’s Unification Ministry said the two sides exchanged opinions on several issues, including the size of the North Korean athletics team and joint cultural events.
Officials from both countries also discussed the possibility of forming a joint women’s ice hockey team and having athletes from both countries march together during the opening ceremony on 9 February.
Pyongyang and Seoul must work out how the North Korean delegation which could comprise up to 500 athletes, cheerleaders, musicians, officials and journalists will cross the border into South Korea, and who will pay for their accommodation and other costs.

>Juthy Saha