Sing-song diplomacy
Updated on 26 February 2008
The New York Philharmonic plays Gershwin and Dvorak to an audience in Pyongyang transmitted live across the Stalinist state of North Korea.
It is known as ping-pong diplomacy, after the table-tennis match between America and China. Then the match paved the way for President Nixon's meeting with Chairman Mao in 1972, a cultural exchange that heralded the lessening of tension and the opening of diplomatic ties.
More than 35 years later, the US visit to another communist country has seen both sides express the hope that the concert will result in improved relations.
