[Newsmaker] Pyongyang slams S. Korean conservatives' rally against NK art troupe

North Korea slammed anti-North Korea activists Wednesday for having held a rally against the North's participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics when its art troupe arrived in South Korea a day earlier for performances.

The Samjiyon art troupe traveled to the South by ferry Tuesday to perform in celebration of the Winter Games on a rare trip that involved Seoul's temporary exemption of a North Korean ship's sea travel from its sanctions.

Members from conservative civic groups held a rally against the art group's arrival at the Mukho port on the east coast, burning North Korea's flag and a photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

North Korea's state media condemned them for having staged "a never-to-be-condoned farce of confrontation."

"They put an affront on the mission that came to celebrate an event of the nation, far from presenting bouquets. In fact, they are no more than a group of benighted gangsters inferior to beast, human scum," the Korean Central News Agency said in English.

South Korean conservatives opposing the North`s participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics wave national flags of South Korea and the US at the eastern port of Mukho on Feb. 6, 2018. (Yonhap)

Even after the ship Mangyongbong-92 berthed, the art troupe did not disembark amid speculation that musicians may have suffered sea sickness. Some said that they may have not left the ship in protest of the anti-North Korea activists' rally.

The 140-member art troupe, called the Samjiyon Orchestra, plans to perform in Gangneung, a sub-host city of the Feb. 9-25 Winter Games on Thursday and in Seoul on Sunday. (Yonhap)