Experts said the North’s decision to lodge the performers on the ship instead of in a hotel had to do with the North’s desire to limit their exposure to South Korean culture and people. The art troupe is believed to be under close watch by others in the North’s delegation, and their schedule and movements in Gangneung and Seoul are being tightly controlled.

“North Korea often taps into music to heighten and pronounce the socialist ideology,” said Kang Dong-wan, professor of North Korean culture at Dong-A University in Busan. “So to then expose the musicians to outside ideologies would be quite a contradiction.”

Leading the Samjiyon art troupe was Hyon Song-wol, the lead singer of the all-female Moranbong Band. Last month, Ms. Hyon ignited a frenzy among local media when she visited South Korea to inspect venues for the performances.

Perhaps because of the buzz surrounding her visit, South Koreans appeared to be more excited about the Samjiyon Orchestra concerts than the actual Olympic events, which so far have had rather lackluster ticket sales. Last week, more than 150,000 people entered a lottery for a chance to win one of more than a thousand free tickets to Samjiyon’s performances in Gangneung and Seoul.

One of those lucky winners was Keum Sun-hee, 49, who traveled to Gangneung from the eastern province of Gyeonggi with her 18-year-old daughter to see the concert. “I always thought the culture between the North and South had been severed, so it was very moving to see the performance,” said Ms. Keum.

It is not the first time the North has engaged in so-called music diplomacy. In 2000, when the two Koreas were moving toward reconciliation, North Korea’s State Symphony Orchestra held a joint concert with the South’s Korean Broadcasting System Philharmonic in Seoul.

Then, in 2008, North Korea hosted the New York Philharmonic — a first for an American cultural organization. More recently, in 2012, the North’s Unhasu Orchestra performed alongside the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, in Paris.