North Korea has abruptly cancelled a joint cultural performance with South Korea that was scheduled for Feb 4 Cheap Nike Air Vortex Australia , blaming South Korean media for encouraging "insulting" public sentiment regarding the North, said South Korea's unification ministry said on Monday.


The North said it had no choice but to call off the performance, which was to be held in the North Korean territory of Mount Kumgang, as South Korean media continued to insult what Pyongyang called "sincere" measures regarding the Winter Olympics Seoul will host next month, the ministry said.


Early in January, North and South Korea launched rare talks to bring North Koreans to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics after the North's leader Kim Jong Un said he was willing to open up discussions with Seoul.


The two Koreas had been in discussions regarding final details over the joint performance. They were also talking about a different concert in South Korea by a North Korean orchestra and sending South Korean athletes to train at a North Korean ski resort.


The North added that the agreement on the Mount Kumgang joint performance had come despite conflict with its internal celebrations, the unification ministry said. North Korea has at least two major holidays coming up next month - Kim Jong Il's birthday and a military founding anniversary.


Seoul said North Korea's decision to cancel the joint performance was "very regrettable" and stressed Pyongyang should uphold all agreements made between North and South Korea.


President Moon Jae-in's administration has faced criticism for its response to North Korea's participation in the Games, especially after it decided to form a combined women's ice hockey team with athletes from the two Koreas for the Winter Olympics.


Many South Koreans have complained the unified women's hockey team - the only such joint team to be formed - was unfair to the South Korean players, going so far as creating over a hundred petitions against the unified team on the presidential Blue House's website.


The controversy has sent South Korean President Moon Jae-in's overall approval rating below 60 percent for the first time since he took office in May last year, according to a survey released last week by South Korean pollster Realmeter, dropping more than 6 percentage points since the previous week.


Agencies

A tourist tries a snow slide at a snow resort in Siping City, northeast China's Jilin Province, Dec. 27, 2017. An ice and snow festival kicked off here on Wednesday. (XinhuaZhang Nan) Actors perform a dance at the opening ceremony of an ice and snow festival held in Siping City, northeast China's Jilin Province, Dec. 27, 2017. (XinhuaZhang Nan) Staff members prepare hotpots for tourists at the opening ceremony of an ice and snow festival held in Siping City, northeast China's Jilin Province, Dec. 27, 2017. (XinhuaZhang Nan) A hawk keeper shows his hawk at the opening ceremony of an ice and snow festival held in Siping City, northeast China's Jilin Province, Dec. 27, 2017. (XinhuaZhang Nan) " Wang Binhe (left) served as the physician of Chairman Mao Zedong from 1949-54.[Photo provided to China Daily] Nurse Guo Qinying (left) accompanies Deng Xiaoping on a walk with his grandson.[Photo provided to China Daily] [Photo provided to China Daily]

The responsibilities of being a leader's physician are highlighted in a reprinted book, Xing Yi reports.


The Health Guards Behind the Red Wall is a reprinted book, which is based on the verbal accounts of some physicians who took care of Chinese leaders, including the personal doctor of Mao Zedong, New China's founding father.


The death of a Chinese leader, Ren Bishi, from cerebral hemorrhage in October 1950, led to the creation of a special healthcare facility in the leadership compound of Zhongnanhai in Beijing.


Fu Lianzhang, one of the few Western-trained doctors who served in the Red Army in the 1930s, was appointed the first head of the healthcare unit, which was tasked with taking care of about 93 leaders, including all members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and other top government officials.


At the beginning, the unit had limited medical staff and resources. Many physicians had to work both as doctors and nurses. The process of selecting medical personnel was also very strict－doctors and nurses not only needed top professional skills, but also had to be loyal to the government and the country.


The book quotes Fu as telling his staff: ""The security guards keep leaders safe, and our responsibility is to protect the leaders' health. We are their health guards.""


During their service in the healthcare facility, Fu and his colleagues complied with a set of confidentiality rules under which they couldn't associate with people outside their scope of work or reveal their work content even to their immediate families, and when their terms of service ended, they were not allowed to contact the leaders directly.