By Jon Herskovitz
PYONGYANG (Reuters) - The United States and North Koreahave fought a war and played at nuclear brinkmanship. OnTuesday night, they will attempt a unique moment of unity whenthe New York Philharmonic plays a concert in Pyongyang.
The unprecedented event comes as North Korea appears to beturning a deaf ear to demands to hold to its side of aninternational disarmament deal and give a full account of itsnuclear weapons programme.
"I am a musician and not a politician, but music has alwaysbeen an arena or area where people can make contact. It isneutral, it is emotional," the philharmonic's music director,Lorin Maazel, told reporters on arrival on Monday with hisorchestra at Pyongyang's airport.
The concert could make a "tiny contribution" towardbringing the United States and North Korea closer together, hesaid.
The orchestra has tried to break the ice between Cold Warfoes before with a celebrated visit to the Soviet Union in1959.
Discussions for the concert first emerged last year assignificant progress was made in six-way nuclear negotiationsamong the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the UnitedStates.
U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill last week said theconcert is "an effort to address broader issues, addressbroader relationships."
Analysts say Washington sees this visit as being almostakin to cultural gestures it made to its Cold War foes decadesago that eventually helped to ease tension.
North Korea has opened its hermit state by allowing inscores of members of the Western media, setting up a media roomwith Internet access and almost completely unrestrictedinternational phone lines. Both are unheard of in a countrythat imprisons people for making unauthorised contact with theoutside world.
Analysts said that for North Korea, the brief opening ofits doors is its own diplomatic coup.
Its propaganda machine will almost certainly spin the visitas a U.S. mission to pay tribute to its leader Kim Jong-il --which is the way is portrays most events involving its DearLeader, who heads the world's first communist dynasty.
The United States and North Korea have no diplomatic ties,are technically still at war and have troops staring each otherdown across the heavily fortified border that has divided Northand South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a ceasefire.
There is no word on whether the enigmatic leader Kim willattend the concert.
On their first night in Pyongyang, the orchestra wastreated to a performance of traditional music and dance.
It was devoid of politics except for the final routinecalled "The Snow is Falling". It was reminiscent of "Swan Lake"except that the lead dancer in the North Korean version wasplaying the role of a communist revolutionary fighter.
The concert will open with the orchestra playing thenational anthems of the two countries to an audience expectedto be made up of top cadres and generals who dominate thetightly-run state.
The rest of the music selection for the New YorkPhilharmonic's concert is steeped in irony.
George Gershwin's "An American in Paris", the famed pieceabout a foreigner discovering the "the city of lights" will beplayed in an impoverished country which does not produce enoughelectricity to light its homes at night.
Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World",highlights an immigrant's discovery of America's music. It willbe played to in a country that forbids most of its citizensfrom leaving and reportedly executes many of those caughtescaping.
At night, energy-starved North Korea lit the streets ofPyongyang for the motorcade of buses carrying some 350 peoplefrom the orchestra, its entourage and media covering the event.
As the buses pulled away, a few street lights went outbehind them and through the rear-view mirror, one lit signcould be seen, which read: "Crush the American imperialistaggressors".
(Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Sanjeev Miglani)
