Winter Olympics 2018: North Korea cheerleaders surprise tourists as minders MONITOR squad

Taking a break from their Olympic duties, around 80 members of the squad went to visit the Ojukheonmsueum – home of Yi I, a 16th century prominent Confucian scholar.

While there, they danced in formation for 30 minutes to a crowd of shocked tourists and locals.

They played Korean traditional music and upbeat folk songs with trumpets, saxophones, clarinets, flutes and drums.

Police officers prevented reporters, locals and tourists from getting too close to the cheering squad from the rogue communist state, who waved and simply said “hello” in Korean.

It was their first outing since they arrived in south Korea last Wednesday to root for their national athletes competing in the Winter games. 

Earlier in the day, 200 cheering squad members visited Gyeongpodae Beach.

Up to 1,000 policemen, minders and security agents kept a close eye on the women.

The squad walked in rows of two, and smiled and waved to curious spectators as they were ushered along the wooden walkway across the sand.

The huge cheerleading squad, clad in red and white outfits, has been dubbed the “army of beauties”, and the women have caused massive interest at the Pyeongchang Games.

But they sparked outcry in Seoul earlier today after wearing what appeared to be masks of the rogue state’s former leader during one of their routines, sparking claims of propaganda.

Conservative groups in South Korea have said identical masks the women wore during a singing performance resembled Kim il-sung, and local media reported the North Korea women were cheering for their former leader, sparking claims the hermit state was using the tournament for propaganda.

Officials have tried to quell the controversy by claiming the image was simply a “good-looking man” and the women were singing a traditional love song.

And South Korea’s Unification Ministry quickly released a statement, saying: “After checking with a North Korean official at the scene, it has been confirmed that there was no such meaning whatsoever, as assumed in the report.”

But groups in South Korea have lashed out at the performance and accused Pyongyang of lying.

North Korea’s cheerleading squad makes up nearly half its 500-member party at the Olympics, vastly outnumbering the 22 athletes.

They are made up of women in their 20s, handpicked from universities and nationalist groups.

Extensive background checks are carried out on the women to ensure they have the right ideology and are not related to any defectors of regime critics.

Previous members of the troupe include Ri Sol-ju, now the wife of dictator Kim Jong-un.