It has been called Dvorak diplomacy, sing-song diplomacy and musical diplomacy. With the full backing of the US State Department, the New York Philharmonic performed at the heart of George Bush's "axis of evil" yesterday under the baton of Lorin Maazel, after bringing to Pyongyang the largest cultural delegation since the end of the Korean war.

North Korea's "Dear Leader", Kim Jong-il, was not among the 2,500 party officials and other specially invited guests who thronged the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre. He did not need to be. He had already chalked up a major propaganda victory by successfully inviting the American orchestra.

The concert began with renditions of both countries' national anthems, and included, appropriately, Dvorak's Symphony No 9, From the New World, composed in 1893 during a visit by the Czech composer to the United States. Other works were Gershwin's An American in Paris and Wagner's Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin. The encore was the Korean traditional folk song, "Arirang", which brought the audience to its feet for a five-minute ovation. "There may be a mission accomplished here. We may have been instrumental in opening a little door," Mr Maazel said.

The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who is currently touring the region, said: "It's a long way from playing that concert to changing the nature of the politics of North Korea, but I think it's a good thing."

Washington was quick to point out that the event in the isolated hardline communist state was just a concert and reminded North Korea of its obligations to come clean on its nuclear programmes in line with international commitments agreed last October.

"It's not necessarily going to change the behaviour of a regime that is not being as forthcoming as we need them to be on their nuclear activities," said the White House press secretary, Dana Perino. North Korea missed a deadline of 31 December to disable its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, although experts say this is less critical than its failure to provide a full account of North Korean proliferation activities and uranium enrichment in time for the same deadline.

"This is a critical time for the negotiations," said T J Pempel, a North Korea expert and head of Berkeley's East Asian Institute. But he added: "The Philarmonic visit indicates that the climate is definitely warming. There has been significant progress on Yongbyon."

North Korean officials yesterday confirmed that the rock star Eric Clapton had been invited to perform in Pyongyang in 2009, following UK performances by the North Korean State Symphony Orchestra.

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