An Associated Press report published in Wednesday’s (3/21) Washington Post states, “An Atlanta-based nonprofit is planning to bring North Korea’s national orchestra to the U.S. for a tour that would start in Atlanta, according to the group’s president. The North Korean National Symphony Orchestra is planning a concert in Atlanta this spring followed by a tour of several other cities, said Robert Springs, the president of Global Resource Services, a humanitarian group that works in North Korea. He said he hopes the visit will take place in the spring but that the details are still being worked out and the visit is still awaiting government approval. … ‘The hope is that we can better understand the people of North Korea and that they can better understand us,’ he said. ‘And that could lead to more normalized relations.’ The deal comes amid encouraging signs that ties between the U.S. and North Korea could be warming. … The U.S. tour by North Korean musicians takes place four years after the New York Philharmonic performed in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, in January 2008—a historic cultural exchange between musicians from two nations that remain enemy states.”
Posted March 21, 2012
