Red Velvet express their gratitude after performing at the North Korea concert
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- in Finance
- — Apr 2, 2018
'This performance in Pyongyang will add momentum to inter-Korean exchanges and co-operation that resumed with the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the South, said Culture Minister Do Jong-hwan, who led the group.
As many as 160 K-pop musicians could take part in the concerts; such top musicians as Cho Yong Pil, the five-strong Red Velvet female band (except for one of its members, Joy, who didn't join her bandmates due to scheduling conflicts with the drama she's now starring in and was harshly slammed on social media for her being absent) and the solo singer Seohuyn will perform for their North Korean neighbors.
A South Korean artistic group including K-pop singers flew to Pyongyang on Saturday for two performances in the North Korean capital.
Kim's younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, and other top officials, including nominal head of state Kim Yong Nam, were also at the event.
Kim proposed that the next one be held in Seoul under the title "Autumn Comes".
A North Korean art troupe staged two performances in the South in February to celebrate the Games.
The event comes ahead of the April 27 summit, when South Korean President Moon Jae-in is set to meet with Kim at a border village. Before Sunday's performance, South Korea last sent a pop singer to North Korea in 2005.
The inter-Korean summit, the third after meetings in 2000 and 2007, will be held on April 27.
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Sunday's concert to a packed audience at the elaborately decorated 1,500-seat East Pyongyang Grand Theatre ended with a standing ovation after a finale in which all the stars appeared on stage to sing a song about unification.
Although almost 300,000 South Korean troops and 24,000 American troops will take part, the drill will be a month shorter than usual and will not involve nuclear submarines.
This year's drills feature fewer strategic weapons such as nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, Seoul's military has said. As one of the most established K-pop acts today, the band is expected to offer a taste of some of the most cutting-edge K-pop to people in the isolated communist country.
North Korea requested the show, which was originally scheduled for 5:30 p.m., be delayed one hour at the last minute for the "convenience of more audience", according to the pool report. Kim Jong Un was seen clapping in tune to some of the songs and later took photographs with the performers after the show.
But not all onlookers were receptive to the K-pop offensive.
Despite the North's isolation and strict curbs on unauthorised foreign culture, enforced with prison terms, K-pop and South Korean TV shows have become increasingly popular there thanks to flash drives smuggled across the border with China. On Tuesday, the two Koreas plan to hold a joint performance. She had performed with the North's Samjiyon Orchestra in Seoul in February.
In an interview with Billboard in 2013, the 68-year-old singer was dubbed a "K-pop legend".
