SEOUL • South Korean activists burned the North's flag yesterday near a theatre where North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister and the South's President watched a North Korean musical display in a culmination of their Olympic rapprochement.
Some 140 members of Pyong-yang's Samjiyon Orchestra gave a concert in Seoul as part of a deal in which the North sent hundreds of athletes, cheerleaders and others to the Pyeongchang Winter Games.
Pictures showed Ms Kim Yo Jong seated between South Korean President Moon Jae In and the North's ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam, who was officially leading the North's delegation, and applauding at last night's concert.
At an earlier dinner with senior Seoul officials, Ms Kim said she found the two Koreas still had much in common despite decades of separation. Before flying south, she said, she had expected "things would be very different and unfamiliar", according to a statement from Mr Moon's office. "But it turned out there were many things similar and in common," she went on. "I hope the day we become one will be brought forward."
Mr Kim had invited Mr Moon to a summit in Pyongyang, an offer extended by his sister and special envoy in a letter she handed to Mr Moon during talks and lunch on Saturday. In response, Mr Moon called for efforts "to create the necessary conditions" for such a visit.
The rapprochement pushed by Mr Moon has angered conservatives, who accused him of being a North Korea sympathiser.
"Having these red communists in the heart of Seoul is an utter humiliation," one shouted near the concert venue as dozens of others waved banners condemning both Mr Moon and Mr Kim. "We are against the ugly political Olympics," read one banner.
Some set a North Korean flag on fire before police intervened.
The North's presence has dominated headlines in the early days of the Olympics, with all eyes turning to Ms Kim, believed to be 30, who is among her brother's closest confidantes.
The protesters accused Mr Moon of allowing North Korea to stage its propaganda in Seoul and undermining the US military alliance.
South Korea's main opposition party, the Liberty Korea Party, warned that any talks between the two Koreas, without the precondition of scrapping the North's nuclear programmes, would only "benefit the enemy".
Japanese editorials sounded a similar warning, saying dialogue would be meaningless unless it led to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. "Moon should be aware that he has to urge denuclearisation to North Korea by himself, not depending on dialogue between the US and North Korea," the Yomiuri newspaper said in an editorial.
Tensions soared last year as the North staged a series of nuclear and missile tests in violation of UN resolutions, while Mr Kim and US President Donald Trump traded colourful insults and threats of war.
US Vice-President Mike Pence, who was in South Korea for the Games' opening ceremony, said the United States, South Korea and Japan were in complete agreement on isolating North Korea.
"There is no daylight between the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan on the need to continue to isolate North Korea economically and diplomatically until they abandon their nuclear and ballistic missile programme," Mr Pence told reporters during his return flight to Washington.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
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