North Korea abruptly cancels joint cultural performance with South Korea

There was hope the run-up to North Korea's participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics would be smooth sailing, but the first major hiccup came late Monday night.Out of the blue,... the North called off a joint cultural event scheduled to be held at Mount Kumgang to celebrate the first Olympics on Korean soil in 30 years.Our Ji Myung-kil has more. The joint cultural performance between South and North Korea set for February 4th at the North's Mount Kumgang had been part of a series of planned events ahead of the Winter Olympics in South Korea.The joint events during the PyeongChang Games were seen as a thawing of inter-Korean ties. However, a telegram from the North late Monday reportedly blamed "biased" and "insulting" media coverage from the South on the North's planned events for the Olympics.The North was also angry at South Korean media reports of a possible military parade in Pyongyang on February 8th, a day before the opening ceremony of the Winter Games. South Korea's unification ministry said the North's sudden decision was regrettable adding that the North should uphold all the remaining agreements that have been made.Those are the art performances and taekwondo demonstration. The North is also sending hundreds of delegates, cheerleaders and performers to the South over the course of the Olympics.The inter-Korean talks which resulted in the agreement came after tensions on the Korean peninsula reached their highest point in decades. But there have been concerns that the links between the Koreas could breach international sanctions on North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.Therefore, Seoul is weighing how to support North's participation in the Olympics while not providing cash to the North... as cash payments to the regime are banned under UN sanctions. South Korea earlier said it would not pay the fees for using the North's airport and airspace.Ji Myung-kil, Arirang News.