Expectations are growing over South Korean K-pop artists’ performances in Pyongyang next month, with a South Korean art troupe scheduled to stage a joint performance with their North Korean counterparts.
South Korean K-pop artists and other celebrated singers will hold a joint concert with the North Korean artists on April 3 -- two days after the South Korean art troupe is to stage its own performance in Pyongyang, according to a presidential protocol aide.
Under the working title of “Spring Comes,” the presidential aide said the two concerts in Pyongyang would include more than 160 South Korean artists performing a wider range of music than during North Korean art troupe Samjiyon Orchestra’s joint performance with South Korean artists held in Seoul in February.
“What we will stage in Pyongyang will truly deserve the title of the joint performance (between the two Korea,” senior presidential protocol aide Tak Hyun-min said Saturday after wrapping up his three-day visit to Pyongyang.
Chief South Korean art delegate Yoon Sang(right) met with his North Korean counterpart Hyon Song-wol. Yonhap
The joint South-North performance is to be held in the Pyongyang Arena, also known as Ryugyong Chung Ju-yung Gymnasium named after the late South Korean business tycoon who visited the North in 1998. South Korea’s performance will take place in East Pyongyang Grand Theatre.
The South’s art troupe of more than 160 will visit Pyongyang on March 31 via air for two performances -- on April 1 and April 3 -- ahead of the third inter-Korean summit. The summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will take place at the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjeon in late April.
The South Korean delegation to Pyongyang will include the country’s pop legends, such as Cho Yong-pil, Lee Sun-hee and Cho Jin-hee, who have all performed in Pyongyang during the previous era of an inter-Korean detente. Popular girl group Red Velvet and Seohyun of Girls’ Generation are also among those who will be performing in Pyongyang.
While the two Koreas have yet to agree on which songs the South Korean singers will sing in Pyongyang, the South Korean singers are expected to choose songs that are popular among North Koreans and favored by the North’s late leader Kim Jong-il, father of the current leader Kim Jong-un. The final list of songs and artists is expected to be announced early this week before rehearsals commence.
“It wasn’t that easy to reconcile what we want to sing with what they want us to sing,” chief South Korean delegate Yoon Sang said during a press conference last week after meeting with his North Korean counterpart Hyon Song-wol, leader of the North’s popular Moranbong band.
“Aside from political issues, there are some (South Korean) songs that the North Koreans don’t know. … Our priority is to make sure that the North Koreans will be deeply touched by our performances in the same way that the South Korean audience were touched,” said Yoon Sang.
While the Unification Ministry said Kim Jong-un’s attendance at the scheduled performance in Pyongyang has not been confirmed, expectations are high for his attendance to set a peaceful mood for a summit with President Moon, who attended the joint South-North concert held in Seoul.
Moon watched the performance by the North’s Samjiyon Orchestra on Feb. 11 along with Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jung, who conveyed her brother’s invitation to a summit in Pyongyang after attending the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The Samjiyon Orchestra’s performance in Seoul featured about a dozen South Korean pop songs from the 1980s and 1990s. While most North Korean residents are restricted from listening to South Korean songs, they are allegedly favored by the North’s elites and the ruling Kim family.