North Korea art troupe arrives for Winter Games amid protests

Around 120 North Korean art performers in matching red coats and fur hats arrived in South Korea on Wednesday.

The troupe were seen off from a train station in the North Korean capital Pyongyang by officials including supreme leader Kim Jong-Un's sister, Yo-Jong, smiling broadly and wearing a black coat and grey fur scarf.

The Winter Olympics have triggered an apparent rapprochement on the divided peninsula, where tensions have been high over the nuclear-armed North's weapons ambitions.

In a rare high-level meeting last month, the two Koreas agreed that North Korean athletes, cheerleaders, artistic troupes and other delegates would attend the Games beginning in the South's ski resort of Pyeongchang on Friday.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the art troupe, led by Hyon Song-Wol, head of the Samjiyon Orchestra, left Pyongyang the previous day for a "congratulatory performance" for the Games in South Korea.

However, as soon as they stepped in hundreds of angry South Koreans protested as a ship from North Korea carrying around 120 performers bound for the Olympics docked at the port of Donghae City.

ome were carrying pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un with a huge X across his face while others crumpled the images and stamped them underfoot.

As the North Korean ship approached the dock, the protesters waving South Korean flags, marched around the port chanting into amplified speakers: "We oppose Pyongyang Olympics!"