North Korea Pulls Out From Joint Cultural Event With South Korea
The North Korea is backing out from one of the key joint cooperation projects they have set with South Korea due to negative media reports from the latter.
The 2018 Winter Olympics is approaching, and the North and South Korea previously made arrangements to participate in joint projects to work on the countries' relationship. However, North Korea pulled out from one of their cooperation projects with South Korea due to bad media that surfaced from the latter, TIME reports.
According to Seoul's Unification Ministry, North Korea communicated last Monday via message that they won't be hosting the joint cultural event at the Diamond Mountain this coming Feb. 4. It was supposed to signal the start of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
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The Ministry revealed that North Korea cancelled on the event because South Korean media reports antagonized their "sincere" efforts in the cooperation projects for the Winter Olympics.
Aside from that, North Korea claims that South Korean media outlets tried to escalate a conflict regarding an unspecified domestic festival of theirs. Although North Korea did not specify which reports were in question, several media have slammed them for staging a big event to commemorate the 70th anniversary of their founding military.
The 70th anniversary celebration — honored through a military parade — is supposed to take place on Feb. 8, a day before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
South Korea describes North Korea's decision to back out from the joint cultural event as "very regrettable." However, they will continue to push through with the other cooperation projects that the neighbouring countries have scheduled.
A South Korean government official said they will continue with the other Olympics projects despite North Korea backing out, Reuters confirmed.
Other cooperation projects include a joint training session for the South and North Korean athletes at the Masikryong ski resort, to prepare for the Winter Olympics.
