N.Y. Philharmonic plays concert in North Korea

Musicians get standing ovation
The Associated Press
Tues., Feb. 26, 2008

PYONGYANG, North Korea - The New York Philharmonic performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” and North Korea’s anthem for Pyongyang’s communist elite Tuesday — a historic feat of musical diplomacy aimed at improving ties with the isolated nuclear power that considers the U.S. its mortal enemy.

The Philharmonic is the first major American cultural group to perform in the country and the largest delegation from the United States to visit its longtime foe.

The unprecedented concert, shown live on television inside North Korea, represents a warming in relations between the nations that remain technically at war and locked in negotiations over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs.

Kim Cheol-woong, a North Korean pianist who defected to South Korea in 2002 because of the lack of musical freedom, said last week that regular citizens in the North were prohibited from listening to or playing foreign music produced after 1900.