North Korea slammed anti-North Korea activists Wednesday for having held a rally against the North's participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics when its art troupe arrived in South Korea a day earlier for performances.

The Samjiyon art troupe traveled to the South by ferry Tuesday to perform in celebration of the Winter Games on a rare trip that involved Seoul's temporary exemption of a North Korean ship's sea travel from its sanctions.

Members from conservative civic groups held a rally against the art group's arrival at the Mukho port on the east coast, burning North Korea's flag and a photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

North Korea's state media condemned them for having staged "a never-to-be-condoned farce of confrontation."

"They put an affront on the mission that came to celebrate an event of the nation, far from presenting bouquets. In fact, they are no more than a group of benighted gangsters inferior to beast, human scum," the Korean Central News Agency said in English.