N.Y. Philharmonic visits North Korea, hopes to bring nations closer together

PYONGYANG, North Korea – The New York Philharmonic on Monday became the most prominent U.S. cultural institution to visit isolated, nuclear-armed North Korea, and orchestra members said they hoped their musical diplomacy could bring the two nations closer together.\nA stern-faced border guard checked music director Lorin Maazel’s passport before he descended the steps of the plane to the tarmac, where officials welcomed him and other orchestra members with handshakes and smiles. Later, the musicians were treated to a North Korean dance program and a banquet.\nNorth Korea made unprecedented accommodations for the orchestra, allowing a delegation of nearly 300 people, including musicians, staff and journalists, to fly into Pyongyang on a chartered plane for the 48-hour visit.\nThe Philharmonic’s concert Tuesday will be broadcast live on North Korea’s state-run TV and radio, unheard of in a country where events are carefully choreographed to bolster the personality cult of leader Kim Jong Il.\nThe Philharmonic accepted the North’s invitation to play last year, with the encouragement of the U.S. government, at a time of rare optimism in the long-running nuclear standoff involving the countries.\nAfter successfully testing an atomic bomb in October 2006, North Korea shut down its main nuclear reactor in July and is working to disable it in exchange for aid and removal from U.S. terrorism and sanctions blacklists.\nBut disarmament has stalled this year because of what Washington says is North Korea’s failure to give a full declaration of its atomic programs to be dismantled, something it promised to do under an international agreement.\nMaazel said despite the political overtones of the trip, it was the right decision to go.\n“I think it would have been a great mistake not to accept their invitation,” Maazel said after arriving at the Pyongyang airport. “I am a musician and not a politician. Music has always traditionally been an arena, an area where people make contact. It’s neutral, it’s entertainment, it’s person to person.” \nHe said if the music moves the audience, “we will have made whatever contribution we can make to bringing our peoples just one tiny step closer.”\nLater, Maazel and orchestra members attended a performance that featured folk dancers and was largely devoid of the ideological content typical of most North Korean shows. Only the last number was overtly political: A woman dressed as a guerrilla and brandishing a red scarf performed a dance dramatizing Korean resistance to Japan’s colonial occupation before World War II.\nMaazel presented a bouquet of flowers to the dancer and later praised the performers for their devotion. \n“Through our music, through our art, we will be able to express our friendly feelings to North Korean artists and the North Korean people,” he said in a toast at a banquet inside the People’s Palace of Culture.\nThe visit came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended Monday’s inauguration of South Korea’s new president, Lee Myung-bak, in Seoul. She said before leaving Washington she had no plans to stop in Pyongyang during a trip that also takes her to China and Japan.\n“I don’t think we should get carried away with what listening to Dvorak is going to do in North Korea,” Rice, a classical pianist herself, said Friday, while conceding the benefit of the event in giving North Koreans a window to the outside world.