By Kim Young-jin
South Korean conductor Chung Myung-whun will visit North Korea this week to prepare for a performance in Pyongyang involving a combined French and North Korean orchestra, a Seoul official said Monday.
Chung, who leads the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, will travel with a small delegation to the North Korean capital for three days beginning today for rehearsals, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said.
Chun, who also heads the Seoul metropolitan orchestra, recently stuck the deal for a rare joint performance during a meeting with North Korean musicians in Beijing.
While in China the conductor floated the idea of an inter-Korean orchestral show, but the North said "frosty political relations" with Seoul prevented such an activity.
Tensions remain high between the sides despite hope that a leadership change in the North following the death of longtime ruler Kim Jong-il in December could bring a thaw.
In September, Chung made a rare visit to the North on which he agreed with musicians there to push for regular joint performances between the sides in a bid to ease the tension.
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon has also been making efforts to engage North Korea through cultural activities with the city of Pyongyang, including a joint orchestra concert. The conservative Lee Myung-bak administration has reacted positively to the proposal.
Relations have been prickly between the sides since the Lee administration rolled back a decade of engagement and linked provision of aid to denuclearization steps by the North. They soared to the worst point in decades with the North’s two deadly provocations in 2010.
The two Koreas' philharmonic orchestras held a joint concert in Seoul in 2000 during a period of rapprochement.