North Korea to tune into New York Philharmonic

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The unprecedented event comes as North Korea appears to be turning a deaf ear to demands to hold to its side of an international disarmament deal and give a full account of its nuclear weapons programme.

"I am a musician and not a politician, but music has always been an arena or area where people can make contact. It is neutral, it is emotional," the philharmonic's music director, Lorin Maazel, told reporters on arrival on Monday with his orchestra at Pyongyang's airport.

The concert could make a "tiny contribution" toward bringing the United States and North Korea closer together, he said.

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

Discussions for the concert first emerged last year as significant progress was made in six-way nuclear negotiations among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill last week said the concert is "an effort to address broader issues, address broader relationships."

Analysts say Washington sees this visit as being almost akin to cultural gestures it made to its Cold War foes decades ago that eventually helped to ease tension.

North Korea has opened its hermit state by allowing in scores of members of the Western media, setting up a media room with Internet access and almost completely unrestricted international phone lines. Both are unheard of in a country that imprisons people for making unauthorised contact with the outside world.

Analysts said that for North Korea, the brief opening of its doors is its own diplomatic coup.

Its propaganda machine will almost certainly spin the visit as a U.S. mission to pay tribute to its leader Kim Jong-il - which is the way is portrays most events involving its Dear Leader, 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 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.

There is no word on whether the enigmatic leader Kim will attend the concert.

On their first night in Pyongyang, the orchestra was treated to a performance of traditional music and dance.

It was devoid of politics except for the final routine called "The Snow is Falling". It was reminiscent of "Swan Lake" except that the lead dancer in the North Korean version was playing the role of a communist revolutionary fighter.

The concert will open with the orchestra playing the national anthems of the two countries to an audience expected to be made up of top cadres and generals who dominate the tightly-run state.

The rest of the music selection for the New York Philharmonic's concert is steeped in irony.

George Gershwin's "An American in Paris", the famed piece about a foreigner discovering the "the city of lights" will be played in an impoverished country which does not produce enough electricity 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 will be played to in a country that forbids most of its citizens from leaving and reportedly executes many of those caught escaping.

At night, energy-starved North Korea lit the streets of Pyongyang for the motorcade of buses carrying some 350 people from the orchestra, its entourage and media covering the event.

As the buses pulled away, a few street lights went out behind them and through the rear-view mirror, one lit sign could be seen, which read: "Crush the American imperialist aggressors".

(Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Sanjeev Miglani)