New York Phil wins North Korean hearts but not minds

PYONGYANG (Reuters) - The New York Philharmonic orchestra clearly won over its North Korean audience with a unique concert this week but analysts said the loud applause was not a sign the secretive state planned to mend its ways.

"Exquisite and refined execution," enthused North Korea's KCNA news agency of Tuesday night's unprecedented concert by a Western orchestra in the communist North which was greeted by a standing ovation from its audience of the country's elite.

That story was immediately followed by a report condemning U.S. and South Korean "warmongers" for "an intolerable criminal act to bring the danger of war to the Korean Peninsula" with a new military cooperation deal.

"As long as the North believes it can normalize ties with the United States while holding onto its nuclear arms, the concert will go down in the records as a mere episode," Korean University North Korea expert, Kim Sung-han, said.

The White House too played down expectations of any breakthrough in relations with a government it has branded as part of an axis of evil and which it treats as a pariah state for sponsoring terrorism.

"I think at the end of the day we consider this concert to be a concert, and it's not a diplomatic coup," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

PAST DEADLINE

The North is two months past a deadline it agreed to under an international deal to own up to everything related to its efforts to build a nuclear arsenal.

The chief U.S. envoy for nuclear talks with the hermit state, Christopher Hill, is staying on an extra day in Beijing -- the nearest the North has to an ally -- to work on reviving the stalled agreement.

He had been scheduled to accompany Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Tokyo.

"The concert reminded me to some degree of the 'ping-pong' diplomacy ahead of normalization of relations between China and the U.S. But with China and the United States, there was a strategic decision on both sides that preceded their move," said Korea University's Kim.

"You could say the United States has made that strategic decision that it would try to bring the North out into the international community, on condition the North abandons its nuclear programs. The question is, has the North made that strategic decision? It appears not."

Equally unprecedented on Tuesday night was the decision by the North Korean government to broadcast the entire 90-minute concert live on the country's one television channel.

"I watched the concert with my family last night," a hotel worker said. "It was wonderful."

But the next day, a report on the performance in the main communist daily was brief and on page four.

FLOWERS FOR CUBA

The front page was reserved for news that "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il had sent flowers to congratulate Raul Castro on becoming Cuba's new leader and the communist world's second dynastic successor by taking over from his brother Fidel Castro.

Kim Jong-il was the first when he succeeded his father and founding leader of North Korea Kim Il-sung, who on his death in 1994 became its president for eternity.

South Korea's media could barely contain its excitement for the concert.

"An overture to peace between the North and the United States," was the headline of the mainstream JoongAng Ilbo daily's editorial.

"Considering the brainwashing by the North all these years that the United States is the arch enemy, this is a sensational change," it wrote.

The concert came a day after South Korea inaugurated its new conservative president, Lee Myung-bak, who has vowed to be far less tolerant than his predecessor of the North's behavior, promising aid and investment only if it completely gives up its efforts to be a nuclear weapons power.

For some analysts the whole event was no more than a fig leaf for North Korea to divert attention from the fact it is dragging its feet on nuclear disarmament.

"North Korea does have a tendency to use these kinds of moves when it is cornered by the international community," said South Korea's Yonsei University international relations professor Lee Jung-hoon.

"The essential point is that Pyongyang has failed to meet the December nuclear declaration deadline and that it is still being delayed. Covering up this kind of key issue with a concert performance could be a dangerous thing," Lee added.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim and Lee Jiyeon; Writing by Jonathan Thatcher; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

(Take a look at the Reuters Global News Blog for more on the NY Philharmonic's visit:http:/blogs.reuters.com/global/)