Philharmonic plays US anthem in NKorea (AP)

PYONGYANG, North Korea - The New York Philharmonic performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" for North Korea's communist elite Tuesday -- a feat of musical diplomacy aimed at improving ties with the isolated nuclear-armed country that considers the U.S. its mortal enemy.

The Philharmonic is the first major American cultural group to perform in the country and the largest delegation from the United States to visit its longtime foe.

The unprecedented concert represents a warming in relations between the nations that remain technically at war and locked in negotiations over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs.

The Philharmonic began the concert with "Patriotic Song" -- North Korea's national anthem -- followed by the U.S. anthem. The audience stood during both anthems and held their applause until the conclusion of the second.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il did not appear to be in attendance at the 2,500-seat East Pyongyang Grand Theater.

"My colleagues of the New York Philharmonic and I are very pleased to play in this fine hall," music director Lorin Maazel said in English at one point. He then told the audience to "Please have a good time" in Korean.

North Koreans in attendance -- men in suits and women in colorful traditional Korean dresses -- fixed their eyes at the stage. Many wore badges with a portrait of Kim Il Sung, father of current leader Kim Jong Il.

Ri Gun, North Korea's deputy nuclear negotiator, was in the audience. Sitting next to him was William Perry, a former U.S. secretary of defense.

When the concert ended, the Philharmonic received a five-minute standing ovation, with many members of the audience cheering, whistling and waving to the beaming orchestra.

Ahead of the concert in the isolated North, Maazel said the orchestra has been a force for change in the past, noting that its 1959 performance in the Soviet Union was part of that country's opening up to the outside world that eventually resulted in the downfall of the regime.

"The Soviets didn't realize that it was a two-edged sword, because by doing so they allowed people from outside the country to interact with their own people, and to have an influence," he told journalists in Pyongyang. "It was so long-lasting that eventually the people in power found themselves out of power."

When asked if he thought the same could happen in North Korea, he said: "There are no parallels in history; there are similarities."

Still, he said, the concert could spark other cultural and social exchanges.

"We are very humble. We are here to make music," he said.

The U.S. and North Korean flags were both on display at opposite ends of the stage. Following the brief prelude to Act 3 of Wagner's "Lohengrin," the orchestra moved on to pieces that aimed to show the ensemble's importance in American music.

That included two pieces that premiered with the Philharmonic: Dvorak's "New World Symphony," written while the Czech composer lived in the United States and inspired by native American themes -- and Gershwin's "An American in Paris."

"Someday a composer may write a work entitled 'Americans in Pyongyang,'" Maazel said in introducing the Gershwin work, a remark that drew warm applause from the audience.

Kim Cheol-woong, a North Korean pianist who defected to South Korea in 2002 because of the lack of musical freedom, said last week that regular citizens in the North were prohibited from listening to or playing foreign music produced after 1900.

On the streets of Pyongyang earlier Tuesday, North Koreans said they were aware of the orchestra's visit. But the trip was not yet front-page news here: A picture of the orchestra's airport arrival to the North Korean capital was printed on page 4 of the main Rodong Sinmun newspaper, along with brief stories on the event.

At the Grand People's Study House, the country's largest library said to include 30 million volumes, journalists saw North Koreans looking up information in an electronic catalog, reading industrial journals and attending language and science classes.

In one boisterous classroom, teacher Jeon Hyun Mi led students through an English lesson using materials from an American-designed program. Her students enthusiastically shouted out "yes" or "no" to her questions and gave brief replies.

The teacher said she welcomed the orchestra's visit as a way to bring the people of the two countries together, implying it was only the governments that harbored differences.

"We think we have good relations, people are very close," Jeon said. The trip "is a gesture of improvement" in ties between the U.S. and the North.

Kim Kwang Chol, a 24-year-old computer technician, was searching the library's catalog for a photo of the peninsula's tallest peak, Mount Paektu, that he said he would use in a multimedia presentation.

"I think it is a very good phenomenon that the New York Philharmonic is coming," he said. "I think that this visit will help relations between the United States and North Korea improve."

"This chance will be a good signal for (the North) and the United States," said Kim Seon Hwa, a 25-year-old watching a Chinese instructional CD video on flower arranging on a computer. "We Korean people like cultural exchanges."

Ri Myong Sop, an electrical engineering student walking on the city's streets outside a subway station, repeated the country's official line that the U.S. started the Korean War, which ended in a 1953 cease-fire that has never been replaced with a peace treaty.

"At present, if the United States takes the decision of a more encouraging policy toward the North then we can embrace the United States," he said.

The U.S. government has supported the Philharmonic's visit, agreed upon last year when efforts to end the North's nuclear weapons program were making unprecedented progress. The country shut down its main nuclear reactor in July and has started disabling it so it cannot easily be restarted under the eyes of U.S. and international experts.

However, disarmament has stalled this year because of what Washington says is North Korea's failure to give a full declaration of its atomic programs to be dismantled, as Pyongyang promised to do under an international agreement.