North Korea has proposed sending its art troupe to South Korea this week on a ferry for performances to mark the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Seoul officials said Monday, amid concerns that such sea travel could violate Seoul's unilateral sanctions.
The North notified the South on Sunday that it plans to send the 140-member Samjiyon art troupe on the Mangyongbong-92 on Tuesday and use it as accommodation for the group, according to Seoul's unification ministry.
"We are discussing with the South and relevant agencies details including which port it will use," Baik Tae-hyun, a ministry spokesman, told a press briefing.
The troupe's first performance will be held at Gangneung Arts Center on Thursday, followed by a concert at the National Theater of Korea in Seoul on Sunday. Earlier, the North said it would send the art troupe via a western cross-border land route.
The Mangyongbong-92 is the ferry that transported the North's cheering squad at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, the South's southern port city. It used the ferry as accommodation for cheerleaders.
But the North's plan could constitute a violation of Seoul's so-called May 24 unilateral sanctions established in 2010 to punish the North's sinking of a South Korean warship in March of that year.
The Mangyongbong-92 does not appears to be a ship blacklisted by the United Nations Security Council.
The government said that it is considering imposing an exemption from the May 24 sanctions in this case.
"The May 24 sanctions ban a North Korean vessel entering a South Korean port. But we are considering an exemption to make the PyeongChang Games a success," Baik said.
He said that Seoul treated a trilateral logistics project involving the two Koreas and Russia as an exemption from the sanctions. The project involved the shipment of Russian coal into South Korea through the North Korean port city of Rajin.
"When it comes to U.N. sanctions, we will closely consult with the international community including the U.S. in order not to make the move violate sanctions." (Yonhap)