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/ 26 February 2008

Musical diplomacy as NY Phil plays Pyongyang

Cold War foes the United States and North Korea enjoyed a rare moment of harmony on Tuesday when the New York Philharmonic played an unprecedented concert in the hermit state. An audience of North Korea’s communist elite gave America’s oldest orchestra a standing ovation after a rousing set that took in Dvorak, Gershwin and a Korean folk song

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/ 25 February 2008

NY Phil tries Dvorak diplomacy with North Korea

The New York Philharmonic arrived in a snowy Pyongyang on Monday to play the symphony From the New World in an overture to thaw still frozen ties from the Cold War era between the United States and North Korea. If well-received, the concert would make a ”tiny contribution” toward bringing the United States and North Korea closer together, said music director, Lorin Maazel

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/ 10 April 2007

Time running out for N Korea nuclear moves

North Korea is running out of time to start dismantling its nuclear weapons programme before a weekend deadline, a top White House adviser told North Korean officials on Tuesday during a rare visit to Pyongyang. Meanwhile, United States officials have resolved a separate financial dispute that has stymied progress in the arms talks.

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/ 8 December 2003

Capitalist pigs in Animal Farm

There is a capitalist pig in Ri Dok-sun’s garden. There are also two capitalist dogs and a brood of capitalist chicks. But even though Ri, a 72-year-old North Korean, lives in the world’s last Orwellian state, this is no animal farm. The beasts are the product of the growing free market pressure on a government that claims to be the world’s last truly socialist country — Korea.