They just can’t bring their instruments… :). Think those teeny cameras found in the cymbals, did it.
Seriously though…
Adding a cultural wrinkle to the diplomatic engagement between the United States and North Korea, the New York Philharmonic plans to visit Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in February, taking the legacy of Beethoven, Bach and Bernstein to one of the world’s most isolated nations.
The trip, at the invitation of North Korea, will be the first significant cultural visit by Americans to that country, and it comes as the United States is offering the possibility of warmer ties with a country that President Bush once consigned to the “axis of evil.”
“We haven’t even had Ping-Pong diplomacy with these people,” said Ambassador Christopher R. Hill, the Bush administration’s main diplomat for negotiations with North Korea and the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.
Gosh, hope they can come back.
The Tizona Group 
December 10, 2007, 11:41 am at 11:41 am
“We haven’t even had Ping-Pong diplomacy with these people,” said Ambassador Christopher R. Hill
Ummm, Mr. Hill…Gee “Ping-Pong” and “these people”. As touchy as The DPRK is, couldn’t they consider this…well you know…Kind of a slur?
December 10, 2007, 7:10 pm at 7:10 pm
Since I’m a musician myself, this kind of idiocy makes me cringe. One commentor somewhere likened it to sending an orchestra to Germany in 1938, which I think is not a perfect analogy, but about right.
As I often say, there is no law that says just because you’re an artist you have to be a political moron, but it obviously helps.
December 10, 2007, 9:35 pm at 9:35 pm
Am I lucky or what?
Intelligent commenter’s. As I look to the fucking moon, I raise my glass and say thank you, fucking moon.
December 10, 2007, 11:38 pm at 11:38 pm
The moon – the fucking moon – is a beautiful thing. Unless, of course, it is accompanied by a bat. LOL!
Let them play gnip-gnop on the fucking moon.