Concert Hall fountain overlooking the "Dear Leader"

The plan was to play beautiful music where marvelous football was played some 42 years ago.  But, the bankers wouldn’t have it - spoilsports.  The Straits Times is reporting that due to concerns about venues and financing, a tour by the North Korean state symphony, scheduled for this month, will be postponed until 2009.

The planned concert was to be held in Middlesbrough, UK.  Middlesbrough is noteworthly to North Koreans as this small town of 140,000 residents bonded with and cheered on the underdog North Korean football team to a stunning victory over the highly favored team from Italy during the first round of the 1966 Word Cup.

Earlier in the year, after a wave of good feelings that followed the New York Philharmonic’s visit to Pyongyang in Februrary, there were hopes of a reciprocal tour by the Noth Korean state symphony to the United States.  However, hopes faded fast as the political climate in the US cooled due to on-going difficulties during the 6-party nuclear disarmament talks.