Celebrating 90 Years - Foreign Policy Association

REVIEW OF A RECITAL AND REMARKS ABOUT NORTH
KOREA BY CHEOL WOONG KIM, CO-SPONSORED
BY THE FOREIGN POLICY ASSOCIATION AND THE
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY.
Excerpted from
The New York Sun, May 23, 2008
A MUSICIAN FLEES NORTH KOREA FOR
CULTURAL FREEDOM
by Charlotte Cowles
The North Korean classical pianist Cheol Woong
Kim gave a special performance and spoke about his
experiences escaping to South Korea at a private club
in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Born and raised in Pyongyang, the site of the
New York Philharmonic’s recent landmark concert,
Mr. Kim, 33, spent two years attempting to flee his
native country before arriving in South Korea in 2003.
This was his debut performance in Manhattan.
“I did not leave North Korea because I was hungry
for food, but because I was hungry for music,” Mr.
Kim, who gave remarks before and after each piece,
said. “People do not leave because they know that
they deserve food, but because they know that they
deserve freedom.”
Mr. Kim was first exposed to music banned
in North Korea when he won the opportunity to
study abroad in Russia. He first escaped from North
Korea to China in 2001, where he worked as a laborer,
transporting trees and living on two scraps of bread
a day. He was captured and repatriated twice before
reaching safety.
The president of the National Endowment
for Democracy, Carl Gershman, introduced Mr. Kim
as “a man whose story opens a rare window into his
country....”
Mr. Kim described his fourth piece, a sweet,
slow pop ballad by Richard Clayderman, as “lifechanging.”
“It is the result of playing this piece that I es-
caped from North Korea,” he said. “Richard Clayder-
man was forbidden, but I was practicing this piece
because I wanted to dedicate it to a girl.” He had
heard the piece when he was in Russia, and all the
other pieces he was allowed to play in North Korea
were, as he put it, “too stiff” for him to play in courtship;
he wanted something “soft.”
Someone in North Korea overheard him
practicing, however, and reported him. For punishment,
he had to write 10 pages of repentance, after
which he made the decision to escape. “At that point
I almost hated this piece,” he said. “But now I am
thankful. It showed me what freedom was.”
When an audience member asked him about
the girl for whom he had been practicing the song,
Mr. Kim looked down for a moment before answering:
“She’s still in North Korea.”
Mr. Kim also spoke about the New York
Philharmonic’s recent performance in North Korea.
Mr. Kim regarded the trip as a success because the
orchestra’s music had been broadcast publicly for all
North Koreans to hear. “The contract through which
the Philharmonic came to North Korea was superbly
arranged,” he said. “In order to change North Korean
people, you need to engage.”
Still, the North Korean government is not
quick to change. It bans most new music, which
becomes monotonous for musicians and audiences
alike. “Official music has not changed in many years,
and people in North Korea have actually gotten very
sick of that music,” Mr. Kim said.
Freedom does not come without challenges,
however. “One of the hardest things I have experienced
since leaving North Korea is having to choose what to
play,” he said.
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