North Korea's largest orchestra performed Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 for the first time Friday, lead by celebrated Japanese conductor Michiyoshi Inoue despite heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The concert in Pyongyang by the State Symphony Orchestra was held amid North Korea's threat to abandon Monday the 1953 armistice that effectively ended hostilities in the Korean War, and a day after the U.N. Security Council imposed its harshest sanctions yet on the communist country over its third nuclear test.
The packed concert, attended by about 1,500 people at the People's Theater, featured a 120-strong North Korean choir and four vocal soloists from both the North and Japan. It commenced with the traditional Korean folk song "Arirang" before launching into Beethoven's final and best-known symphony, completed in 1824.