[Olympics] North Korean athletes' first night at Olympic Village

North Korean delegates to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, led by Vice Sports Minister Won Kil-u, left, leave Yangyang International Airport, Thursday. The 32-member delegation arrived in South Korea on a chartered plane, before checking into the Gangneung Olympic Village. / Joint press corps

By Kim Bo-eun

Ten of 22 North Korean athletes who will compete in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics spent their first night in the Olympic villages after arriving in the South, Thursday.

The 10 athletes came to the South with South Korean skiers who were returning from joint-training at the Masikryong Ski Resort.

They were three Alpine and three cross country skiers, and two figure and two short track skaters, and were part of a 32-member delegation led by North Korea's Vice Sports Minister Won Kil-u. As well as the athletes, there were three coaches and 18 support staff.

They traveled to the South via a chartered plane that had taken the South Korean skiers to the North for two days of training at Masikryong.

After arriving in the South, they registered at PyeongChang and visited the Olympic village in Gangneung, Gangwon Province.

Last week, 12 North Korean female ice hockey players who are part of the joint Korean team arrived in the South. They are training with their South Korean counterparts at the national center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province.

The inter-Korean women's ice hockey team will enter the Gangneung Olympic Village after a warm-up match with Sweden in Incheon, Sunday.

The athletes will spend a week in training before the Olympics kicks off Feb. 9.

Meanwhile, the unification ministry said Thursday the government will offer audience seats to the public for performances by a 140-member North Korean orchestra in Gangneung, Feb. 8, and Seoul, Feb. 11.

The government will receive applications for seats from 12 p.m. today through 12 p.m. Saturday at ticket.interpark.com.

A total of 1,060 seats are open to the public, and the government will randomly select 530 individuals and provide them with two tickets each.

The list of individuals who are selected will be posted on the website Tuesday.

The government will also separately receive recommendations from local governments for the remaining seats. The seats will go to the underprivileged, as well as people who have been separated from family members due to the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The orchestra's program is yet to be finalized, according to the ministry.

"We are fine-tuning the matter through document exchanges at the Panmunjeom communication channel," ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said in a briefing.

Baik said the orchestra will not be paid for its performances.

The performances will be the final event between the Koreas before the Games begin. Earlier this week, Pyongyang called off a scheduled cultural event at the North's Mount Geumgang.

The North cited this was due to South Korean media taking issue over a military parade honoring the establishment of the regime's armed forces scheduled for Feb. 8. Media reports said Pyongyang taking such a military posture was contradictory to its cooperation with the South for the Olympics.

The military parade in Pyongyang will take place the same day the 140-member North Korean orchestra will perform in Gangneung in the South.

The government, meanwhile, has been taking a cautious stance. It emphasized that the remaining agreements between the Koreas should be followed through with.

Athletes from the North and South will make a joint-entrance under a "unification flag" for the Olympics' opening and closing ceremonies.

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