N.Y. Philharmonic arrives in North Korea

Delegation of 300
The North’s official news agency — the country’s main voice to the outside world — reported briefly Monday on the Philharmonic’s arrival. At the same time, the Korean Central News Agency also carried a separate piece highlighting the country’s own symphonic works, with titles such as “The Leader Is Always with Us” and “Victory in Great Anti-Japanese War.”

The report said such works give “a profound symphonic rendition to the idea that socialist Korea centered on the popular masses is the best in the world.”

For the Philharmonic’s visit, the North Korean government allowed a delegation of nearly 300 people, including musicians, staff and journalists.

It was not known whether North Korean leader Kim would attend the Philharmonic’s concert. Philharmonic spokesman Eric Latzky said the group had not directly invited him.

After landing, buses carried the visitors through the snow-covered streets of Pyongyang, which appeared relatively crowded as people walked or rode bicycles home from work. One person was seen waving, but others seemed to give the motorcade passing or no interest.

Most visitors to Pyongyang are first taken to a large statue of Kim Il Sung, where they are expected to pay respects, but the orchestra was spared that obligation.

'What we do is universal'
The 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 two countries.

After successfully testing an atomic bomb in October 2006, North Korea shut down its main nuclear reactor in July and has been working to disable it in exchange for aid and removal from U.S. terrorism and sanctions blacklists.

But 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, as Pyongyang promised to do under an international agreement.

The musicians said they hoped their performance might help overcome difference between the two countries, whose troops face off across the Demilitarized Zone that has divided the peninsula since the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War.

“I think it’s important to reach people through something other than politics,” said Stanley Drucker, the orchestra’s principal clarinet and its longest-serving member, who joined the ensemble in 1948 at the age of 19. “What we do is universal. Music is pure in itself; it’s what you make out of what you hear.”

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