N.Y. Phil tries to change tune of U.S.-N.Korea ties

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - The New York Philharmonic will try a dash of Dvorak diplomacy with an unprecedented concert in North Korea next week, hoping America's oldest orchestra can bring a change of tune to one of the world's most isolated countries.

U.S. government officials may be expecting some rare harmony between the bitter foes, but analysts say they should brace for a different note from the North's propaganda machine, which is likely to bill the concert as homage to its jump-suited leader Kim Jong-il.

The New York Philharmonic arrives in Pyongyang on Monday for a stay of about 48 hours which will culminate in a concert on Tuesday featuring the works of Antonin Dvorak and George Gershwin played before the hermit state's elite members.

"If we are gradually to improve U.S.-Korean relations, such events have the potential to nudge open a door that has been closed too long," the orchestra's music director Lorin Maazel wrote in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week.

The orchestra has tried to break the ice between Cold War foes before with a celebrated visit to the Soviet Union in 1959.

The Bush administration has called the North an outpost of tyranny and part of an axis of evil.

The North's official media say Washington is run by political philistines bent on toppling its leaders and igniting nuclear war on the Korean peninsula.

The two states have no diplomatic ties, are technically still at war and have troops staring each other down across the heavily fortified border that has divided North and South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease fire.

It will be the biggest group from the United States since North Korea seized the U.S. spy ship Pueblo 40 years ago and held its 82 crew members for months.

The concert will be broadcast live in both North and South Korea.

One person who will be watching intently is Kim Cheol-woong, a classically trained piano prodigy from North Korea who defected to the South to pursue his passion for Western music.

"The message that will be delivered to North Koreans is: 'the U.S. is kneeling to our Dear Leader Kim Jong-il'," he said.

But pianist Kim believes the concert does have the potential to change hearts and minds in the reclusive state.

Access to foreign music is banned and under normal circumstances, listening to the works that will be played at Tuesday's concert could land a person in prison, he added.

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