Two Koreas' joint cultural events, training cause stir

By Kim Bo-eun

The Koreas' agreement Wednesday to hold a joint cultural event at Mount Geumgang, as well as inter-Korean athlete training at the Masikryong Ski Resort in the North is stirring controversy over whether the plans breach the international community's sanctions on Pyongyang over its military provocations.

The plans are part of a broad agreement reached at the third inter-Korean talks on the North sending a delegation to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics next month.

According to a joint press statement released by the Ministry of Unification, the Koreas agreed to host a joint-cultural event at Mount Geumgang before the Games. The statement also said North and South Korean skiers would train together at the North's Masikryong Ski Resort ahead of the Olympics.

These overtures come while the Koreas have not addressed Pyongyang's nuclear programs. Since the Jan. 9 talks, the first inter-Korean dialogue in almost two years, the North and the South agreed to resume military talks, but follow-up meetings have focused only on issues pertaining to the Olympics.

While the Koreas will discuss further details through document exchanges at Panmunjeom, there are several aspects of the plans that may clash with the sanctions placed on Pyongyang.

U.N. Security Council sanctions ban the direct provision of cash to North Korea, but South Korean skiers may have to pay to use the ski resort for training.

Meanwhile, tours to Mount Geumgang, which began in 1998, have been suspended since 2008 when a South Korean tourist was shot dead by the North Korean military there due to a violation of tourist zone regulations.

Hosting a joint-cultural event may signal that the Koreas are open to the idea of resuming tours to the North's scenic mountain, despite the sanctions.

Furthering the dispute is the fact that the South first proposed these plans to the North, which could send a message that Seoul is not complying with the international community's hard-line stance toward Pyongyang over its nuclear program.

"We proposed these plans to the North in the high-level talks on Jan. 9," Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung said in a briefing Wednesday.

The plans were drawn up by the liberal Moon Jae-in administration, which supports a policy of engagement and reconciliation with Pyongyang, to make the Olympics an opportunity to achieve peace between the Koreas.

Opposition parties said the planned events would only help internationally promote Mount Geumgang and the Masiryong Ski Resort, which the North promotes as one of its leader Kim Jong-un's key achievements.

"It is the intention of North Korea to resume tours to Mount Geumgang as well as the operation of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, and use the PyeongChang Olympics as a means to promote the regime," the conservative Liberty Korea Party said.

The People's Party said "The government is forgetting that there have been no changes to the North Korea's nuclear program."

However, the government stated that the planned events do not clash with its stance toward the North's nuclear issue.

"It is the government's stance not to raise any controversy with regards to sanctions placed on the North in its participation in the PyeongChang Olympics," foreign ministry spokesman Noh Kyu-duk said in a briefing, Thursday.

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