South Korea has urged North Korea to explain why it abruptly suspended plans to send a delegation to prepare cultural performances during the Winter Olympics, its unification minister said Saturday.

The North had planned to send a seven-member advance team headed by the leader of an all-female Western-style band to the South this weekend to inspect venues for proposed performances in Seoul and the eastern city of Gangneung.

Hyon Song-Wol, reportedly an ex-girlfriend of leader Kim Jong-Un, would have been the first North Korean official to visit the South in four years if Saturday’s trip had gone ahead.

But Pyongyang said it had suspended the plan, giving no reason. It was unclear whether the visit was permanently cancelled or postponed.

“We sent a message by fax to the North… at around 11:20 am (0920 GMT), demanding an explanation,” Seoul’s Unification Minister Cho Myoung-Gyon told reporters.

“We’ve conveyed our position to the North that all preparations have been made for the visit and that the South and the North would be able to reset the schedule,” he added.

The two Koreas have agreed to march together under a unification flag — a pale blue silhouette of the Korean peninsula — at the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on February 9, and to form a unified women’s ice hockey team.

Source: AFP