Kim Jong-un’s propaganda squad is getting ready for their big performance in South Korea:

North Korea’s art troupe on Wednesday held a rehearsal for its upcoming performances in South Korea, which will celebrate the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

The 140 member-strong Samjiyon Orchestra traveled to the South by ferry Tuesday to perform in Gangneung, a sub-host city of the Feb. 9-25 Winter Games, on Thursday, and in Seoul on Sunday.

It will be the first performance by North Koreans in the South since 2002, when Pyongyang sent a cohort of 30 singers and dancers from several music and performance groups to Seoul for a joint event.

After having lunch in their Mangyongbong-92 ferry, which is docked at the South Korean eastern port of Mukho, the North Koreans showed up at the Gangneung Arts Center, the venue of their first performance, at about 3:40 p.m. on Wednesday in an atmosphere quite different from that of the morning.

They changed to casual attire from the stylish red coats and black fur hats and ankle boots for female members and from black coats and hats for males.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I see that the reason they brought the performers by ferry is because it can serve as a floating jail for them.

Via a reader tip comes news that a virus is spreading among workers at the Winter Olympics:

Some security agents responsible for the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games have been infected with norovirus, forcing organizers to quarantine about 1,200 agents and replace them with soldiers.

The committee categorized 41 staff members as “suspected patients” on Monday.

Earlier the day, the committee had said three of them were confirmed to have contracted the virus, also known as the winter vomiting bug, while 38 were suspected of having it.

The patients vomited and suffered from stomach pains. Some of the agents were in charge of the athletes’ village, raising concerns that the virus may affect international athletes who will stay there.

The patients, mostly university students, were hired by a recruiting agency to provide workforce for screening at the entrance of venues.

Organizers said the virus appeared to have originated from Horeb Odaesan Youth Training Center in PyeongChang, where the agents stayed in a room for six in a group of 10. The Institute of Health and Environment under Gangwon Province Office found traces of the virus in a drinking water dispenser, and in shower rooms and in washroom basins.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but if a number of athletes get sick because of this virus, this will be a major setback for South Korea who is hosting the games.

I wonder if the ROK government will replace South Korean astronauts with undeserving North Korean astronauts if the Kim regime demands it like they did for the Winter Olympics?:

South Korea unveiled a long-term plan Monday to secure indigenous space technology with the aim of successfully landing a spaceship on the moon by 2030, the science ministry said.

Under the roadmap crafted and finalized by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the government will secure the necessary basic technology to send a spacecraft into lunar orbit by 2020 and to land it on the surface of Earth’s satellite a decade later.

In order to meet the goal, the ministry will begin analyzing critical related technology starting in 2019, officials said.

It marks the first time that the Moon Jae-in administration, which took office in May 2017, has mapped out a long-term strategy for space exploration. In the past, the country has mostly been busy with narrowing a technology gap with powerhouses such as the United States and Russia, the ministry said.

Under the latest plan, South Korea will also begin an era of private companies launching orbital space programs in 2026.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Falcon Heavy sends a car to Mars https://t.co/Y7uBtU6Mt2

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2018

The North Korean ship Mangyongbong-92 carrying the North’s 140-member Samjiyon art troupe enters the South Korean eastern port of Mukho on Feb. 6, 2018. The troupe will perform in the Olympic sub-host city of Gangneung and in Seoul to mark the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics in the South. (Yonhap)

It took 50 years, but crew members of the USS Pueblo that were held hostage and tortured by North Korea back in 1968 have filed a lawsuit against the Kim regime:

More than 100 crew members and relatives have joined a lawsuit, filed this month in a federal court under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which allows victims to sue state sponsors of terrorism for torture, hostage-taking, personal injury or death.

North Korea will almost certainly not respond to the lawsuit, and plaintiffs are unlikely to be able to recover funds directly from Pyongyang, but if successful they will be eligible for relief from a US government fund set up to support victims of terrorism.

US President Donald Trump named North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism in November, after it was removed from the list in 2008 by President George W Bush, re-opening the window to litigation against Pyongyang under the 1976 Act.

“Our clients are seeking to hold North Korea accountable for the unspeakable acts committed against the crew of the USS Pueblo more than 50 years ago and the impact it has had on them and their families since then,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers said in a statement.  [CNN]

We just couldn’t go an entire Olympics without some Dokdo nonsense:

Japan lodged a protest with South Korea after flags hoisted during an Olympic preparation match were found bearing disputed islets in the Sea of Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Monday.

“We cannot accept the flag in light of Japan’s stance over the sovereignty of Takeshima and it is extremely regrettable,” Suga said at a news conference, referring to the South Korean-controlled, Japanese-claimed islands called Dokdo in Korean.

The sports flag appeared during a game between Sweden and the unified Korean women’s ice hockey team in Incheon ahead of the Pyeongchang Winter Games.  [Japan Times]

You can read more at the link.

I wonder how many sanctions busting demands Kim Yong-nam is going to demand from President Moon?:

President Moon Jae-in is considering having bilateral talks with North Korea’s Kim Yong-nam who will lead a high-profile delegation to the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, according to Cheong Wa Dae, Monday.

The meeting, if it takes place, could speed up the thawing of inter-Korean relations which is a result of the North’s participation in the Games. Moon is also expected to try to encourage Washington-Pyongyang talks, as he will also meet with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence who is leading his country’s Olympic delegation.

Cheong Wa Dae welcomed the attendance of Kim, the president of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the nominal head of North Korea according to its Constitution.

“It is Kim’s first visit to South Korea, and he is the highest-ranking North Korean official ever to visit the South,” presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said. “His visit shows North Korea’s wishes to improve inter-Korean relations and for a successful Olympics. We recognize the North is showing a serious and sincere attitude.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

I am now absolutely confident that Matt Pottinger never said what @HankyorehNews said he said about bombing North Korea for domestic political advantage. So just in case your TL needs a trim, here's who RT'ed its facially implausible disinformation. https://t.co/yyGjpDzaqg

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) February 3, 2018

South Korea’s Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mi (2nd from R) gets on an autonomous bus, which underwent a trial run using the world’s first fifth-generation (5G) network service of South Korea’s second-biggest mobile carrier KT Corp., at the Korea Transportation Authority’s Transportation Safety Research and Development Institute in Hwaseong, west of Seoul, on Feb. 5, 2018. (Yonhap)