For a solid few weeks, the long-standing animosity between North and South Korea was seemingly dwindling as the two rivals announced their cooperation in the upcoming winter Olympic Games in Seoul.
North Korea even prepared to send a delegation of the country’s most beautiful women to win the hearts of southerners – but the fairy-tale reunion seemed to good to be true as protests have begun on both sides of the border amidst fears that North Korea might pull out of the Olympics at the last minute.
A Rare Visit from a North Korean Celebrity
Seoul, Hyon Song Wol during her two-day visit on Monday
It all started when North Korea’s popular girl band leader, Hyon Song Wol, came to South Korea on her two-day visit last Monday, only to find herself surrounded by a flurry of protests by conservative activists in Seoul who displayed their dissatisfaction over the recent cooperative efforts from the two Korean sides by burning North Korean flags as well as photos of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.
Wol, an extremely popular celebrity in the North, is leading the Moranbong Band which has been picked by Kim Jong Un himself to represent the country during the winter Olympics taking place next month from February 9th to 25th. Visits from high-profile North Korean celebrities rarely occur, so when Miss Wol arrived in Seoul last week, it was bound to trigger controversy and media frenzy across the country.
Mobbed by Angry Protesters
South Korean protesters burning a North Korean flag during the visit of North Korean personality Hyon Song Wol
During her two-day visit, Wol visited the key venues for the world’s most anticipated sports event in an eastern city where North Korean performances were supposed to be held. After detailed observation, Moranbong leader returned to the railway station in Seoul where an angry mob of almost 200 protestors awaited to greet her with anti-Kim chants.
Despite the severity of the situation, Wol decided not to give a reaction and was rushed away from the scene before things could get any worse. As the Northern celebrity left the scene, protesters proceeded to burn a large photo of Kim Jong Un and the country’s flag in front of the camera. The unification flag that was meant to be carried by the Olympic athletes from both rival sides to mark a new turn in Korean relations, was also burned down by the demonstrators.
The Korean media paid a lot of attention to Wol’s controversial visit, documenting and scrutinizing her every single move during the short visit. Aggressive news reports about Wol’s past, her career as a celebrity and even her attire during the visit began to emerge everywhere in South Korea to put the celebrity in bad light and hamper the cooperative efforts between the two rival sides.
Southern media has gone as far as to call Wol a North Korean spy and an army colonel with strong ties to the country’s supreme leader. However, it’s difficult to confirm any of these claims since very little information about Wol and her band is known to the outside world.
North Retaliates
The Northerners have also risen to protest the actions of South Korean activists, threatening that if the rival country does not issue a public apology for burning down the North Korean flag and Kim’s photo, the country will pull out of the Olympics and rescind any cooperative efforts to improve diplomatic relations with Seoul in the future.
North and South Korea represents during a recent meeting where they agreed to create one Olympic team and also march under the same flag in the PyeongChang 2018 opening ceremony
Korean Central News Agency which is heavily controlled by the state issued a statement saying that the North will never forgive the conservative forces who carried out the ‘hideous crime’ at the Seoul railway station. The news headlines said that South Korean protesters put a shameless display of mockery towards Kim Jong Un’s sincere efforts to improve north-south relations and prompt unnecessary political drama during the Olympic season.
The concise statement made by the News Agency also states that if North’s participation in the Olympics is cancelled, no one but the South Korean authorities will be blamed. South Korea has fired back saying that they haven’t forgotten that, until recently, Kim Jong Un had been threatening to turn its missiles in Seoul’s direction and turn the South into ‘a sea of fire’ and trusting Kim Jong Un’s intentions will not be easy for them.
