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Hyon Song-wol, director of the Samjiyon performance group, leads an advance North Korean team to inspect lighting and sound conditions at the National Theater of Korea on Jan. 22. (Photo Pool)
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The group, led by Hyon Song-wol, was the first example of inter-Korean personal exchange under the Moon Jae-in administration
A North Korean group conducting a preliminary review for visiting performers during the Pyeongchang Olympics returned home on Jan. 22 after wrapping up its two-day schedule in South Korea. The team, headed by Samjiyon performance group director Hyon Song-wol, drew attention as the first example of inter-Korean personal exchange since the Moon Jae-in administration took office. Hyon’s delegation arrived at 2:14 pm on Jan. 22, the second day of its visit, to conduct a close inspection of sound and lighting conditions at the National Theater of Korea in Seoul’s Jangchung neighborhood, one of the candidate sites for the North Korean celebratory performance for the Pyeongchang Games. Standing behind the sound control box, Hyon made specific requests to locate the lighting and asked, “Can I hear music? String music.” A theater official responded, “We can play ‘Arirang.’” A string arrangement of “Arirang” was played for around 90 seconds until Hyon said, “That’s fine.” Hyon’s group conducted a review of the 1,500-seat theater’s facilities for around one hour until 3:21 pm. With the group having previously conducted relatively fast visits of around 15 minutes each to Jamsil Students’ Gymnasium and Jangchung Arena, some are speculating the North Korean performers may be favoring the National Theater of Korea as a venue for their Seoul performance. This suggests the Gangneung performance is likely to take place at Gangneung Art Center, which the North Korean group showed interest in the day before, and the Seoul performance at the National Theater of Korea. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced plans the same day to stage the two North Korean performances in Seoul and Gangneung as free invitational events without ticket sales. After visiting the three candidate sites in Seoul, the North Korean group’s last scheduled stop for their South Korea visit was the Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul’s Gwangjang neighborhood for dinner. With the Walkerhill Hotel previously used frequently in the past as a setting for important inter-Korean talks, observers saw the visit as possibly intended for a preliminary examination for its use as accommodations for the North Korean performers. After concluding their two-day visit to South Korea, Hyon and the other North Korean group members left the Walkerhill Hotel at around 9 pm that evening and returned North the way they had come, traveling by bus on the road running parallel to the Gyeongui railway line. By Jung In-hwan and Kim Mi-young, staff reporters Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
