Hill stays in Beijing to work on N.Korea issue

TOKYO (Reuters) - The top U.S. negotiator with North Korea stayed in Beijing for an extra day on Wednesday to work on reviving the stalled effort to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programs, the U.S. State Department said.

North Korea committed to abandon all nuclear weapons and programs in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits under a 2005 multilateral deal.

But the accord between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States has become bogged down by Pyongyang's failure to produce a declaration of its nuclear programs by the end of last year.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill cancelled plans to accompany Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Tokyo as he wants to continue talks with the Chinese, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters who flew to Japan with Rice.

Rice and Chinese President Hu Jintao had a "good conversation" about the matter on Tuesday, McCormack said, and the secretary of state asked Hill to stay behind to keep "working on the six-party talks with the Chinese".

"We came with some ideas. They had some ideas," McCormack said, saying Hill's extended stay aimed to "see if we can tease out some of these ideas".

The spokesman said there was a good atmosphere in Rice's talks in Beijing, adding "we'll see if it leads somewhere".

McCormack said he did not know what ideas Hill would discuss in Beijing or whom he would meet.

The spokesman said Hill would extend his stay in China only for one day and then resume his planned travel in the region. He had no plans to meet North Korean officials in Beijing or to visit Pyongyang.
Rice flew to Tokyo for the final stop of a three-country tour of Northeast Asia that began in Seoul for Monday's inauguration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

In Japan, she is expected to face official complaints over a U.S. Marine's alleged rape of a 14-year old girl this month on the island of Okinawa and is expected to apologize for the incident, one of a series of crimes blamed on U.S. troops in Japan.

(Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Hill stays in Beijing to work on N.Korea issue
| Reuters

N.Y. orchestra strikes high note in N. Korea

Philharmonic concert receives warm applause

By Blaine Harden
Washington Post / February 27, 2008
PYONGYANG, North Korea - American symphonic diplomacy won bravos and standing ovations here yesterday, as the New York Philharmonic performed a concert without precedent in this shuttered Stalinist state that has long considered the United States as its chief enemy.

Swinging from a joyous and rollicking rendition of George Gershwin's "An American in Paris" to a moving performance of Korea's most-beloved folk anthem "Arirang," the concert seemed to delight a mostly male, standing-room-only audience of North Koreans, nearly all of whom were wearing lapel pins bearing the face of their leader, Kim Jong Il, or his father, Kim Il Sung, the country's modern founder.

Broadcast live on national television and radio, the concert opened with the national anthems of both countries, the audience of ranking Communist Party members and supporters standing through their own "Patriotic Song" and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Although Kim did not attend the performance, security leading up to the concert hall was light, a telltale sign, it was characterized as a musical and diplomatic triumph by Lorin Maazel, musical director of the orchestra.

"Little could we know that we would be drawn into orbit by this stunning reaction," Maazel told reporters after the concert. "I think it is going to do a great deal for Korean-US relations. We may have been instrumental in opening a little door."

Asked if he was disappointed that Kim had not attended the concert, Maazel snapped back: "I have yet to see the president of the United States at one of my concerts. Sometimes politicians are too busy."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during a one-day visit to Beijing, said the New York Philharmonic's concert in Pyongyang was a good thing but cautioned against trying to portray it as a diplomatic breakthrough. "North Korea needs ways to open up," she said. "This is positive. But it's a long way from changing the situation of North Korea," isolated from the West for decades and in the midst of a dispute over its development of nuclear weapons technology.

For the New York Philharmonic, the formalities for entering this sealed police state began on Monday with the surrender of all mobile phones.

On an afternoon darkened by fog and blanketed with late-winter snow, the 130-member orchestra arrived Monday by jumbo jet from Beijing to begin a 48-hour musical diplomacy tour, despite criticism from human rights groups .

Minutes after he stepped onto the tarmac at Pyongyang's airport, Maazel was surrounded by the horde of Western journalists traveling with his orchestra and pressed to justify the visit. Critics have described it as a public relations bonanza for Kim's government, which is eager for trade with and aid from the West. "Obviously, it is a bold step," Maazel said. "But what is the alternative? It would have been a great mistake not to accept this invitation."

N.Y. orchestra strikes high note in N. Korea - The Boston Globe

北朝鮮、エリック・クラプトンに公演依頼＝在英大使館

　［ロンドン　２６日　ロイター］　北朝鮮が、「いとしのレイラ」などの楽曲で知られる英ギタリスト、エリック・クラプトンさん（６２）に平壌での公演を要請していることが分かった。ロンドンにある在英北朝鮮大使館が２６日、明らかにした。

　同大使館のスポークスマンは、クラプトンさんの事務所に平壌公演申し入れの書簡を送付したと発表。「彼（クラプトンさん）は、世界的に有名なギタリストであり、英国のみならず、全世界で広く知られている」とコメント。「平壌で演奏してくれれば、国民が西洋の音楽を理解する良いきっかけになる」と述べた。

　ただ、クラプトンさんの米国事務所のスポークスマンは、世界中から数多くの公演依頼が来ているが、北朝鮮公演については何の合意もなく、公演は予定されていないとしている。

　２００６年６月には、金正日総書記の次男、金正哲氏が複数のボディガードに護衛され恋人とエリック・クラプトンさんのドイツ公演に現れた映像を日本の民放が報じている。

　北朝鮮では２６日、米国の名門オーケストラ、ニューヨーク・フィルハーモニックが平壌公演行い、北朝鮮の国営テレビが生中継した。

北朝鮮、エリック・クラプトンに公演依頼＝在英大使館
| エンタテインメント
| Reuters