Word: koreanness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...East Pyongyang Grand Theater, an ornate, three-tier orchestra hall whose stage had recently been fitted with a new acoustic shell to make the venue worthy of the New York Philharmonic. About 1,400 people jammed the hall--a few dozen foreign diplomats and business people, the rest North Koreans. When Maazel took the podium, it quickly became clear that the evening would be one of emotion. North Korean and U.S. flags stood at either end of the stage, and the audience rose as both nations' anthems were played. For the next two hours, it was easy to forget that...
While the orchestra rehearsed, our minders took the journalists on a whirlwind tour of Pyongyang. One highlight: a hill overlooking the city, where a gigantic bronze statue of the Great Leader stands in front of the Korean Revolutionary Museum. There was no one around as we snapped photos of one another in front of the Big Man, but as we were about to leave, a group of around 40 people walked up in orderly rows, approaching the statue reverentially and then bowing deeply. But before we could ask what, exactly, the Great Leader meant to them, their tour guide herded...
...orchestra's last piece was, for the audience, the most poignant. It played Arirang, a traditional Korean folk anthem loved in both North and South. Koreans have sung versions of the song for 600 years, and it speaks to a longing in both countries to become a whole nation again. As the orchestra began to leave the stage, several members turned and waved goodbye, and many in the audience reciprocated. Bassist Jon Deak later said he was near tears. So too was a young Korean-American assistant concertmaster, Michelle Kim, a descendant of a North Korean family who lived...
...audience continued to stand and applaud. U.S. diplomats, current and former, were euphoric. Donald Gregg, a former State Department and CIA official, who diplomats say has played a quiet but influential role in getting the Bush Administration to engage with North Korea, said he "has rarely seen North Korean officials seem more friendly and flexible...
...That's the reality of how the North Korean government operates. About a year and a half ago, at the behest of another acquaintance who helps aid refugees, I sat in a small apartment outside the town of Yanjie in northeast China. There sat two people - two among thousands - who had fled Kim Jong Il's North Korea in recent years. The mother of one young woman, Park Dae, had been taken to a political prison, gotten ill and died about three years ago, she said. Another, a young man, said he was simply tired of the poverty he faced...