North Korea Backs Out of Joint Concert With South

SEOUL—North Korea abruptly canceled plans to hold a joint musical performance with South Korea this week at a mountain resort in the North, Seoul officials said, putting a damper on the two Koreas’ attempts to build a detente before the coming Winter Olympics.

Pyongyang on Monday pulled out over South Korean press reports questioning the North’s motives for agreeing to hold the joint performance, Seoul’s Ministry of Unification said.

Pyongyang also cited South Korean press reports criticizing the North’s plans to hold a “domestic event” next week, an apparent reference to preparations for what appeared to be a large military parade on Feb. 8 in the North Korean capital to commemorate the founding of the North Korean army.

The cancellation of the musical performance, which was set to take place on Sunday, comes after weeks of inter-Korean dialogue and exchange that appeared to hint at a thaw in bilateral relations.

Following a year of tensions in 2017, when the North test-fired dozens of missiles and conducted its sixth nuclear-weapons test, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un surprised the South by proposing on Jan. 1 to send a North Korean delegation to the Winter Olympics, which will be held in South Korea.

South Korea accepted the North’s proposal, offering to hold the first formal face-to-face talks with Pyongyang in two years. The resulting talks produced agreements to accommodate a North Korean delegation to the South during the Winter Olympics, which begin on Feb. 9 at the South Korean ski resort of Pyeongchang. The delegation will consist of an orchestra, cheerleaders, journalists, high-level officials, athletes and a taekwondo demonstration team. Other agreements included plans to send South Korean skiers to train at a North Korean ski resort.

The two Koreas also received International Olympic Committee approval to form a joint women’s ice hockey team—the first time that the two Koreas have formed a united Olympic squad.

Throughout the dialogue, however, North Korean state media lashed out against South Korean media and conservative politicians, who decried the North’s participation in the Olympics as a ploy to enhance its image at South Korea’s expense.

A group of South Koreans burned a North Korean flag and an image of Mr. Kim outside the Seoul train station during the recent visit of a North Korean delegation of venue inspectors, triggering another angry statement from Pyongyang.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Seoul had received indications from Pyongyang that it would rescind any other agreements.

South Korea’s government said it was concerned over the North’s “unilateral” action, and it stressed the need for “mutual respect and understanding,” the Unification Ministry said.

The concert’s cancellation removes at least one dilemma for South Korean officials, who were weighing whether to supply electricity to the North for the planned joint performance—a possible violation of United Nations sanctions.

The cancellation also raised doubts about separate plans for Seoul to send South Korean skiers to the North’s Masikryong ski resort, possibly this week, to hold joint training sessions with the North.

As of Tuesday morning local time, there was no official comment regarding the cancellation from the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.