South Korean singers fly to Pyongyang for rare concerts

From ageing crooners to bubbly K-Pop starlets, some of South Korea’s biggest pop stars flew to North Korea yesterday for rare performances that highlight the sudden thaw in inter-Korean ties after years of tensions over the North’s nuclear ambitions.

The concerts in Pyongyang today and tomorrow come ahead of a historic summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a border village on April 27.

The meeting, which will precede a planned summit between Kim and President Donald Trump in May, could prove to be significant in the global diplomatic push to resolve the standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons and missiles programme.

The 120-member group that flew to Pyongyang also included government officials, reporters and a taekwondo demonstration team that will perform in Pyongyang today and tomorrow. Another team of 70 South Korean technicians went to Pyongyang on Thursday to set up equipment.

North Korea during stormier times had described the South’s society and culture as a “corrupt bourgeois lifestyle.” Still, the Pyongyang concerts wouldn’t be the first time southern pop singers have performed across the border.

It’s the second trip for the iconic Cho Yongpil, perhaps South Korea’s most influential musician of the past 50 years. He staged a solo concert in Pyongyang in 2005 during a previous era of rapprochement between the rivals.

“It will be comfortable performing in the North as it is to perform in the South,” the 68-year-old singer said in a news conference at South Korea’s Gimpo Airport yesterday. “There’s no reason for me or other singers to be nervous. We all finished rehearsing and will have a fun and comfortable time showing our music.”

Seoul hasn’t officially announced the titles of the songs by the South Korean artists. Cho’s Dear Friend, a ballad about a long-lost friend that reportedly drew an enthusiastic response from the Pyongyang crowd 13 years ago, will almost certainly be one of them.

It would be the third North Korean performances for each female balladeers Choi Jinhee and Lee Sun-hee, who are relatively wellknown in the North.