Philharmonic strikes a diplomatic note
And so the New York Philharmonic, one of the greatest ensembles on planet Earth, is to play a gig-for-peace in Pyongyang. The decision to accept North Korea's invitation was announced in New York earlier this week. It must have been music to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's ears.
In the past few years, the dictator has been struggling to save his decrepit regime from unravelling further. To this end, he has had the immediate assistance of do-gooders who assume that if North Korea were to collapse, the entire sovereign mess would crash like a collapsing Arctic Circle on South Korea.
Therefore, if you care a lot about South Korea, you can show your love by doing everything possible to keep the North patched together.
Mr Kim has also been helped by the arduous labours of US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill.
This is the savvy official who has given up a handful of his years trying to convince the Bush administration that denuclearisation by the North is actually in the core interests of both Pyongyang and Washington.
This year, in Berlin, Mr Hill and one of Mr Kim's buddies bantered about the prospect of more cultural exchanges to improve bilateral ties, reduce lies and maybe save lives.
Advertised (mainly by himself) to be a connoisseur of the arts - as well as a master composer of classical music - Mr Kim was said to have coveted a special concert by America's longest-established orchestra.
Normally, concert programmes in North Korea - few though they may be - require approval at the highest levels. It is said that some of the masterpieces that are regularly required to be performed, while unknown in the west, are indeed masterpieces, as they have been composed by Mr Kim himself.
Apparently the Philharmonic, in agreeing to perform, put its foot down: no works by Mr Kim, alleged or not, would be performed.
The concert is to take place in Pyongyang at the end of February. It will follow in the footsteps of a concert tour of mainland China and Taiwan. And the entire East Asian tour will end with a final concert by the giant orchestra in Seoul, quite fittingly.
Recently, US President George W. Bush sent Mr Kim a warm personal letter. Its purpose was to coax the regime to stay on the nuclear disarmament straight and narrow. And so the president, appraised by Mr Hill of the North Korean overture to the Philharmonic, was in no position to try to stop the music.
Having given the adroit Mr Hill a long leash, Mr Bush now stands on the edge of a diplomatic triumph should the North certifiably denuclearise. In this heady atmosphere, I for one am in no position to place a sour note on the Philharmonic's decision.
In almost all instances, war seems like such a dismal option that any and all efforts at peace require excessive - though not, of course, blind - exuberance. So let us offer a standing ovation as the Philharmonic band plays on.
Tom Plate is a veteran journalist and author, most recently, of Confessions of an American Media Man
