OlympicsSeoul, Jan 13 (AFP) The two Koreas will hold talks nextweek to discuss the North's plan to send a performing arttroupe to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Seoul's unificationministry said today.
The North confirmed it would attend next month's Olympicsin the South at a rare inter-Korean meeting last week,following months of tensions over its nuclear weaponsprogramme.
The ministry said the North was apparently keen todiscuss logistics of the performers' trip to the South beforeplanning its athletes and supporters' attendance at the Games.
"The government informed the North that our delegationwill come to Panmunjom on January 15", the ministry said in astatement.
Both sides will each dispatch four delegates includingart officials to the talks.
Hyon Song-Wol, leader of the popular Moranbong band, isone of four North Korean delegates to attend the talks in thetruce village of Panmunjom on Monday.
The Moranbong band is an all-female music groupperforming pop, rock and fusion styles, whose members arereportedly selected by the leader Kim Jong-Un himself.
The development comes a day after South Korea's vicesports minister Roh Tae-Kang said the South had proposedmarching with the North at the Olympics' opening ceremony andalso forming a joint women's ice hockey team during the high-level talks which took place on Tuesday.
A joint march at the opening ceremony would be a stunningstatement for the Games dubbed the "Peace Olympics", whichwill open about 80 kilometres from the heavily fortifiedKorean border on February 9.
North Korea boycotted the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul,meaning Pyeongchang will be the first Olympics they haveattended in the South. (AFP)CPS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.