ABC, PBS to broadcast New York Phil.'s North Korean concert

ABC News will broadcast the New York Philharmonic's historic concert in North Korea on U.S. television the same day it is performed.

Then two days later, the broadcast will be repeated on PBS, the U.S. public broadcaster.

ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff will provide reporting and commentary for the broadcast, to be aired the evening of Feb. 26, ABC said.

"Any opportunity to go to North Korea is one that we're interested in," said Jeffrey Schneider, senior vice-president of ABC News. "ABC News has done extensive reporting in North Korea, and it's a place we want to know more about."

The concert will also be broadcast in Europe and South Korea.

The U.S. State Department has encouraged the cultural exchange, which came after an invitation from North Korea.

The New York Philharmonic is one of the U.S.'s best known orchestras. Its 106 members leave Thursday for an Asian tour that will include two days in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

Even violinist Lisa Kim, whose Korean parents are survivors of the war that divided the Korean peninsula, agreed to go.

"It just kind of feels that the stuff that happened in the past … [and] what's going on there [now] … makes you feel uncomfortable," she said, admitting she had doubts about going.

North Korea not first repressive regime for Maazel

Kim Jong-il's Stalinist government agreed last year to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in return for fuel and aid, but relations between North Korea and the U.S. remain strained.

Philharmonic music director Lorin Maazel says the concert does not in any way legitimize the North Korean leader's reclusive regime.

He noted he has also conducted concerts in Brezhnev's Russia, Salazar's Portugal and Franco's Spain.

"I thought I was making music and stretching out a welcoming hand to the folks who might not have been believers of the regime under which they were living. I feel this way certainly about North Korea," he said.