Diplomatic overtures in Pyongyang
Posted: Monday, February 25, 2008 7:05 PM
Filed Under:
On Assignment
By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent
PYONGYANG, North Korea – No sooner had Lorin Maazel stepped off the aircraft this afternoon, the maestro was surrounded by cameras and bombarded with questions.
"Hang on," he said defensively, "I’ve only seen the airport."
There is incredible interest in this visit to North Korea by the New York Philharmonic – the first cultural exchange of its kind, and the single largest group of Americans to come here since the end of the Korean War.
There was chaos for a while as journalists, musicians and agitated North Korean security men mingled at the foot of the aircraft steps before the orchestra posed for a group photograph in front of the aircraft, a Boeing 747. They were then ushered to a more agreeable backdrop (for the authorities) of the terminal building with a giant picture of the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung, who though dead, remains head of state.
His son, Kim Jong Il, is in day-to-day charge here, and it is usually hard to move anywhere in Pyongyang without images of the two, together with some pretty blood-curdling anti-American propaganda.
Significantly, the billboards on the nearly deserted road from the airport to the city centre had been toned down.
Read the rest of Ian Williams blog from Pyongyang in the Daily Nightly blog.
