A North Korea expert in the U.S. on Thursday said the stalemate in nuclear talks between North Korea and the U.S. has robbed the upcoming concert of some of its political luster, but it’s likely that as a gesture of encouragement for orchestra members who have flown all the way to Pyongyang, “Kim will show up in the final moment of the concert or attend a dinner reception to be held at the Yanggakdo Hotel after the concert."

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal on Thursday carried conflicting views on the concert. In one entitled "Why We'll Play Pyongyang", the orchestra’s musical director Lorin Maazel, writes, "I have always believed that the arts, per se, and their exponents, artists, have a broader role to play in the public arena. But it must be totally apolitical, nonpartisan and free of issue-specific agendas. It is a role of the highest possible order: bringing peoples and their cultures together on common ground, where the roots of peaceful interchange can imperceptibly but irrevocably take hold. If all goes well, the presence of the New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang might gently influence the perception of our country there. 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."

But in an opposing view entitled "How Pyongyang Plays the West", B.R. Myers, a North Korea researcher at Dongseo University in Busan, said, "The story will be simple: Kim tests nuke, Washington protests, Kim hangs tough, Washington sends musicians to entertain him. Even if average North Koreans were allowed to attend the concert -- Mr. Maazel is dreaming if he thinks anyone but the elite will be there -- they would encounter nothing to make them doubt the party line."

(englishnews@chosun.com )