South Korean activists protested Thursday as a North Korean orchestra gave a sold-out performance on the eve of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. While concert-goers formed a long queue in Gangneung, which is hosting Olympic events, protesters across the street carried placards reading "No Pyongyang Olympics!"
Others waved a distorted image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un photoshopped to resemble a demonic boar.
Some 140 members of North Korea's Samjiyon Orchestra were giving their first performance at the Gangneung Art Centre since arriving in the South Tuesday. The concert takes place a day ahead of the Pyeongchang Olympics opening ceremony, where the two Koreas will march together under the blue-and-white Korean unification flag.
"The concert must be stopped," said Park Byung-seung, who had travelled from Seoul for the protest. "That's promoting Kim Jong Un and North Korea's ideology." Another protester, with a giant South Korean flag wrapped around her shoulders, said: "Don't you know what is at stake? It's our Olympics and we can't wave the South Korean flag."
Protesters say North Korea, which only confirmed its participation last month, has been allowed to hijack the Pyeongchang Games. The nuclear-armed North is on an Olympics-linked charm offensive - sending a troupe of performers, hundreds of female cheerleaders, the ceremonial head of state and even Kim's sister to South Korea.
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