N. Koreans Arriving

[Anchor Lead]

Another 280 North Koreans arrived in South Korea by bus Wednesday morning, including members of the North’s Olympic cheering squad. Meanwhile, the North Korean orchestra, which arrived a day earlier, disembarked from their ferry on Wednesday morning and headed to their first concert venue in Gangneung.

[Pkg]

On Wednesday morning, 280 more North Koreans arrived in South Korea, including four officials from the North Korean Olympic Committee, Sports Minister Kim Il-guk, a cheering squad, taekwondo performers and journalists. They arrived at an immigration office in the South by bus after crossing the military demarcation line at 9:26 a.m. Upon finishing immigration procedures, they took a bus to their living quarters in Gangwon-do Province. The North Korean cheering sqaud will cheer on North Korean athletes and the unified women's ice hockey team during the Winter Olympics. Sources say they will also cheer on South Korean athletes at certain sports events. The North Korean taekwondo team will perform together with South Korean taekwondo artists in Sokcho, Gangneung and Seoul in four performances. The first performance is to take place prior to the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. The North Korean orchestra, which will stage concerts to celebrate the PyeongChang Olympic Games, arrived at Mukho Port in the South on Tuesday by ferry and disembarked from the ship on Wednesday morning. They spent their first night in the South on board the ferry in order to have some rest before their upcoming concerts. The artists began to disembark from the ferry at 8:20 a.m. The orchestra chief, Hyon Song-wol, and the director of the performing arts division of North Korea's Culture Ministry, Kwon Hyok-bong, appeared first. They were followed by the orchestra members. The North Korean artists headed to the Gangneung Arts Center right away.