A 12-member South Korean delegation will head to North Korea early Tuesday to inspect venues where joint cultural and sports events will be held during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. 

The three-day trip comes on the heels of a North Korean inspection team’s visit to South Korea to look at potential venues for its art troupe’s performances.

The South’s delegation will be headed by Lee Joo-tae, director-general for inter-Korean exchange and cooperation at the Ministry of Unification. The South Korean team will make a three-day visit to the Kumgangsan area and Masikryong Ski Resort, both in the east of North Korea.

They will cross the border via a land route in the eastern region, which has been in disuse since October 2015. It was last used for an event for the reunion of separated families from the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The first stop will be Kumkangsan where they will check a concert hall and other facilities for the joint cultural event.

The event is expected to be held at a cultural center in the area.

Cross-border tour programs to the mountain were suspended in 2008 after a North Korean soldier fatally shot a South Korean tourist. Tours were first launched in 1998.

Masikryong Ski Resort, which was opened in late 2013, will be the next destination. The delegation will check roads and facilities ahead of joint ski training.

The South’s Korea Ski Association hinted that it would send members of the national youth team instead of those competing in the Winter Games.

The three-day visit is also likely to include a trip to Kalma Airport, a military airfield that could be used to transport South Korean ski trainees to the North Korean ski resort. But Seoul’s Unification Ministry said during a regular briefing Monday that it has yet to reach a final agreement on the matter.

Following North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s address that expressed the hope to send a delegation to the PyeongChang Olympics, the two Koreas quickly set up a series of meetings on the North’s participation in the Olympics.

Another North Korean inspection team is slated to cross the border to inspect Olympic stadiums and accommodations on the day the South Korean delegation returns home.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)