South Korean delegates visit Mt. Geumgang, Masikryong ski resort
By Kim Bo-eun
A South Korean delegation arrived in North Korea, Tuesday, for a three-day tour of Mount Geumgang and the Masikryong Ski Resort, where inter-Korean events will take place ahead of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics next month.
The visit came a day after a North Korean delegation returned to Pyongyang following a two-day visit to the South to inspect venues where a North Korean orchestral music troupe will perform during the Olympics.
The South Korean delegates led by a unification ministry official crossed the Military Demarcation Line around 10 a.m., Tuesday, taking an eastern land route to Mount Geumgang.
The delegation will return to the South, Thursday, around 6 p.m.
This was the first reopening of the eastern road in two years and three months, since the last reunion of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War took place at Mount Geumgang in October 2015.
Tours to the scenic mountain were halted in 2008, after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier for wandering into an off-limits area.
It is also the first time in almost two years for South Korean officials to travel to the North beyond the truce village of Panmunjeom, since the Gaeseong Industrial Complex was shut down in February 2016.
The 12-member delegation is composed of officials from the unification, and culture and sports ministries, as well as Korea Ski Association members and aviation experts.
The delegation inspected a hall at Mount Geumgang, Tuesday, where the Koreas are set to hold a joint cultural event.
They then traveled to the Masikryong Ski Resort in the city of Wonsan on North Korea’s east coast, the unification ministry said.
The Koreas are planning to hold joint “training” sessions at the resort. The ministry said the delegation will check the feasibility of training for downhill and cross-country skiing _ two Olympic events that North Korea will take part in.
Because the North has proposed the training take place over two days, the delegation is also set to examine the accommodation for South Korean skiers.
It is also scheduled to visit the Kalma International Airport in Wonsan to see whether South Korean skiers will be able to travel to the North by air. The airport is near the site Pyongyang conducted multiple tests of its Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles in 2016.
Pyongyang is expected to cover the expenses associated with the South Korean delegation’s visit to the North, as Seoul decided to pay for costs incurred for the North Korean delegation’s visit to the South through the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund.
“According to the principle of reciprocity, North and South Korea are set to cover expenses for each other,” unification ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said in a briefing, Monday.
The government has stated it would resolve the issue of expenses incurred from Olympics-related exchanges within the boundaries of the sanctions placed on Pyongyang.
According to reports, Masikryong charges $35 per person to use the ski facilities, while hotel accommodation amounts to around $300 a night. Because sanctions by the U.N. Security Council ban cash payments to North Korea, Pyongyang will likely have to cover the costs of the South Korean skiers.
On Thursday, the day the delegation returns, another North Korean team will visit the South to inspect the Olympic stadium and other facilities for three days.
The team will check accommodation and facilities for its athletes, cheerleaders, taekwondo demonstration team and reporters in PyeongChang and Seoul.
Along with the inspection team, the North said it would send 15 ice hockey players who would form a joint women’s team with South Korean athletes.
The two Koreas also agreed that the North Korean music troupe would perform at the Gangneung Art Center in Gangwon Province, Feb. 8, and at the National Theater of Korea in Seoul, Feb. 11.