Kim attends South Korea concert in latest reconciliation move
Kim's late father and longtime ruler, Kim Jong Il, was known to be a fan of the 68-year-old singer.
SEOUL (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Sunday attended the first concert in Pyongyang for over a decade by South Korean entertainers, including a K-pop girlband, the latest gesture of reconciliation before a rare inter-Korean summit.
The visit came as a diplomatic thaw quickens on the peninsula after months of military tensions.
The 120-member group -- 11 musical acts as well as dancers, technicians and martial artists -- are giving a concert on Sunday and another on Tuesday.
Kim and his wife came to watch Sunday s show, a Seoul culture ministry official said, making him the first leader of the North to attend a concert by South Korean performers.
Kim said inter-Korean cultural events should be held more often and suggested another event in Seoul this autumn, the South s Yonhap News Agency said, citing a pool report.
Two other high-level North Korean officials, Kim s sister Kim Yo Jong and nominal head of state Kim Yong Nam, also attended, the report said.
Taekwondo athletes also staged a performance before an audience of 2,300 in Pyongyang on Sunday ahead of a joint display of the Korean martial art with the North s practitioners on Monday.
The concert went ahead at the elaborately decorated 1,500-seat East Pyongyang Grand Theatre.
The rapprochement was triggered by the South s Winter Olympics, to which the North s leader Kim Jong Un sent athletes, cheerleaders and his powerful sister as an envoy.
A North Korean art troupe, the 140-member Samjiyon Orchestra, staged two performances in South Korea last month to celebrate the Olympics.
Kim followed up by agreeing to a summit with the South s President Moon Jae-in, and reportedly to another with US President Donald Trump. The young leader also met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last week during his first overseas trip.
The inter-Korean summit, the third after meetings in 2000 and 2007, will be held on April 27. No date has been set for the US-North Korean summit although it is expected before the end of May.
In another sign of eased tensions, annual US-South Korean military exercises which got under way in the South Sunday will last for just one month compared to some two months normally.
This year s drills feature fewer strategic weapons such as a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, Seoul s military has said. The deployment of such powerful weaponry during past drills has frequently drawn an angry response from the North.
Maze of love
The most closely-watched group due to perform Sunday was Red Velvet, part of the South s hugely popular K-pop phenomenon that has taken audiences in Asia and beyond by storm in recent decades.
The five-member girlband is known for a mix of upbeat electronic music, stylish fashion and high-voltage choreography.
Joy, one of the five members, would miss the trip to Pyongyang due to her TV drama shooting schedule, their agency has said.
Despite the North s isolation and strict curbs on unauthorised foreign culture, backed up by prison terms, K-pop has become increasingly popular there thanks to flash drives smuggled across the border with China.
Other Seoul stars scheduled to join the concerts include Cho Yong-pil, a singer who held a solo sell-out concert in Pyongyang in 2005.
Kim s late father and longtime ruler, Kim Jong Il, was known to be a fan of the 68-year-old singer.
Another famed singer, Choi Jin-hee, is set to perform for the fourth time in the North and to sing "Maze of Love" -- a pan-peninsula hit and one of the late Kim s favourites.
