Word: pyongyang
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...cruelest regimes, one that keeps its people in miserable penury. At a time when states such as Burma are rightly condemned in the West for their abuses of human rights, it has always baffled me why there is so little protest on campuses and among Hollywood activists of Pyongyang's ruthless suppression of dissent...
...Hermit Kingdom. Except for closing a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon - a significant step, to be sure - North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has not fulfilled any other aspect of the supposedly ground-breaking deal he signed last year. But the warmth and musical harmony of Tuesday night in Pyongyang seemed to belie that impasse. And what dramatic possibilities there might have been. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on the same peninsula, albeit in South Korea, attending the inauguration of that country's new President. If there had been a breakthrough, Rice, a classically trained pianist, could easily have made...
...prolonged applause, New York Philharmonic music director Lorin Maazel took to a podium in Pyongyang. And as he stood in front of a standing room only audience of about 1,400 people, it became clear quickly that the evening would be one of rare power and emotion. North Korean and U.S. flags stood at either end of the stage, and the entire audience rose as both nations' anthems were played. From that point on, for the next two hours, it was hard to remember that during the bus ride that afternoon, the members of the orchestra and the journalists accompanying...
When Maazel introduced George Gershwin's "An American in Paris" to the audience, he told them that perhaps one day another composer would write a famous symphony entitled "An American in Pyongyang." Whatever ambivalence the North Korean audience may have felt until then evaporated. The crowd laughed - and applauded long and hard. "From that point on," Maazel would later say, "you could just feel the warmth in the room." For the Korean audience, however, the most powerful piece was the one the orchestra played last: Arirang, a traditional Korean folk anthem loved in both North and South...
...already begun receiving shipments of desperately needed fuel oil under the February 2007 agreement - perhaps one of the reasons some of the lights did finally come on in downtown Pyongyang once the sun went down on the first day of the Philharmonic's visit - and there's more fuel on the way. Some diplomats in the region say Kim's behavior has been drearily predictable. As one describes it: "Agree to a deal, then fiddle around, backtrack - and then try to get even a better deal later: more energy assistance, more economic assistance...