Musical diplomacy thaws U.S.-N. Korea freeze

Music director Lorin Maazel accepts a bouquet of flowers from a North Korean woman after the New York Philharmonic's concert performance in Pyongyang, North Korea on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

by Bay Fang

Pyongyang, North Korea-- With the American flag on one side of the stage and the North Korean flag on the other, the New York Philharmonic gave an historic performance in Pyongyang Tuesday night. As the concert ended with a standing ovation and tears from both the audience and orchestra members, hopes rose that the concert would bring the two traditionally hostile countries closer together.

"For a long time now, the US and Korea have been enemies. The New York Philharmonic's visit to Pyongyang has set down a new marker," said the Vice-Minister of Culture, Song Sok Hwan, in an interview after the concert. He said that even a short time ago, it would have been unthinkable to see the American flag flown in North Korea and hear the American anthem played. "I'm not a politician so it is hard for me to say what kind of change will emerge from this concert, but we have a saying in our country, that the first step is half the journey. And so we have started."

While US-North Korean relations had grown warmer last year with a landmark nuclear deal reached a year ago, implementation of that agreement has been stalled since the start of the year. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the middle of an Asian tour, with the express purpose of building support to pressure North Korea to give a full and truthful declaration of its nuclear capabilities, which the US sees as being the necessary next step.

"We’re at the cusp of something very special here," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at a press conference in Beijing alongside her Chinese counterpart. "We have had a successful round in terms of the shutdown of the Pyongyang reactor. We have had progress on the disablement of those facilities. And now it’s time to move on because the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is in everyone’s interest."

If anything, many of those in attendance believed the concert could break the political impasse simply by bringing the two sides closer together emotionally.

Former Defense Secretary William Perry, who traveled over the DMZ from Seoul to attend the concert, met with chief North Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Kye Gwan earlier in the day along with former diplomats Donald Gregg and Evans Revere, who are now with the Korea Society. He said they tried to convince Kim that the North Koreans should take the opportunity to close the deal with the current administration, instead of holding out for something better with the next – which Perry said was what happened in 2000 at the end of the Clinton administration.

"We are almost there – the American government and the South Korean government are willing to act, and it looks like the North Koreans are as well. What's holding us back is mistrust built up over the decades," said Perry. "Then something wonderful happened – the New York Philharmonic gave a performance in Pyongyang, and the American people and the North Korean people made a connection, talking in a language that needs no translation. It has the potential of transforming the mistrust that has been holding us back."

The final encore, a traditional Korean folksong called Arirang, stirred the audience and left some orchestra members, especially the South Korean performers, sobbing onstage. The song, about a woman who is separated from her lover and longs continually for her other half, resonates deeply with Koreans on both sides of the heavily militarized border that has divided the peninsula for over half a century. The fact that it was being performed by Americans was especially significant, given that North Korean propaganda blames the US for keeping the two sides apart.

"I felt proud of being Korean because even American players played our music, Arirang," said Chang Myung-il, a conductor of music for films, who was in the audience. He said he was given the invitation to attend the concert yesterday, and was excited to receive it. "It was better than we thought it would be, but it was still not as good as when Koreans play it."

While Korea-watchers had warned that it could be used as a propaganda tool for Kim Jong Il, the Dear Leader was not in the audience, and the most senior member of the ruling regime was the vice president of the Supreme People's Assembly, the number three in the country.

The concert was, however, broadcast live around the country, and some Pyongyang residents spoke anecdotally about the streets being empty from 6-8 pm Tuesday evening, as people stayed home to watch the concert. "The expectation was great among the North Korean people regarding tonight's performance," said O Yong Sam, foreign affairs director of the official government broadcasting committee. "We have had foreigners come and play before, but to my thinking, the applause was loudest tonight."

He explained that the live broadcast would not have been accompanied by any political commentary, but simply an announcement before and after telling audiences that they are listening to the New York Philharmonic's performance in Pyongyang.

The 48-hour visit by the delegation of some 250 Americans wreaked temporary havoc on a city whose spotless sidewalks and huge anti-imperialist propaganda billboards speak to a highly controlled society under the grip of the authoritarian Kim Jong Il.

Lights were turned on and huge banquets laid out especially for the visitors. When allowed to stop briefly at the Korean Revolutionary Museum, visiting journalists overwhelmed their minders, chasing down a group of ruddy-cheeked farm workers from outside Pyongyang that had come to lay flowers at the foot of a huge bronze statue of Kim Il Sung, known as the father of the country. A minder waved his arms at one photographer who was too close to the statue, shrieking that it was illegal to cut off any part of the Great Leader's body when taking his picture.

And yet, repeat visitors to the hermit kingdom were surprised by the degree to which they were allowed to interact with regular North Koreans. One 23-year-old engineering student named Rhee Myung Sop, wearing a leather jacket, said it was his first time talking to an American, but was not shy about expressing his opinions as he was stopped on his way home for lunch. "In the past, the US was our enemy. They attacked our country in 1950," he said. "But now, if the US makes a decision to have an encouraging policy towards the DPRK, we can embrace the US."

After the concert, music director Lorin Maazel said the ice-breaking moment with the North Korean audience was when he introduced the Gershwin piece, "An American in Paris." "Someday," he said, "a composer may write a work entitled 'Americans in Pyongyang.'" In response, the previously somber audience broke into cheers.