Hyundai Chief to Attend Pyongyang Concert

The chairwoman of South Korea's Hyundai Group will attend a historic concert the New York

Philharmonic will hold in North Korea next week, group officials said Friday.

The world-renowned orchestra's 130 musicians are scheduled to perform on Tuesday in Pyongyang, with some analysts calling it an overture of cultural diplomacy to open up one of the world's most isolated countries.

Hyundai Group is in charge of South Korea's business cooperation projects with North Korea. Its main business with North Korea includes a tourism project and a joint industrial complex.

Hyundai officials said their chairperson, Hyun Jeong-eun, will leave for Pyongyang on Monday for the concert and possible meetings with North Korean officials on the group's business projects.

The concert by the New York Philharmonic comes as South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan are trying to salvage talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

While it took steps to disable its plutonium reactor in Yongbyon under an October six-party deal, North Korea missed the year-end deadline to give a full list of its nuclear arms programs in return for economic and political rewards.

North Korea is reportedly at loggerheads with the U.S. over whether its list should included its suspected uranium-enrichment program and its suspected nuclear cooperation with Syria.

North Korea has consistently denied both allegations. (Yonhap)