CINA

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평양 2007年 5月

PYEONGYANG 2007

SEX AND DRUGS

AND ROCK'N'ROLL (*)

Following f.. crazy story I found several days ago [actually about one month ago on the Guardian's/UK web site was a link to a blog.. but I thought it was just a stupid joke (**)]:

Rock Festival in Pyong Yang

If you are a band playing any kind of rock, including heavy metal, then you can participate 'ROCK FOR PEACE' in Pyong Yang, the capital city of North Korea. This is the very first time in history that North Korea allows western musicians in the heart of DPRK territory to play capitalist popular music. There are few restrictions and conditions on participation but any band will be considered even though you are from USA...

For more about this b..sh.. please check out:

http://www.voiceofkorea.org/

Gimme some Pyongyang blues  (The First Post/UK, 11.14) 
North Korea wants a ‘western, capitalist’ rock festival. Oh yeah? 

Whatever you thought you were doing in March 2007, it's time to reschedule. A music festival billed as the rebirth of Woodstock, is set to shake the planet for four days. Only there will be no sex and drugs. Or politics. And it'll be in North Korea.

Although it may sound eerily similar to the fictional plot of Team America, the festival is for real. Billed as "Rock for Peace", the event is an attempt to promote the values and stability of North Korea. "We are not a mad, isolated country. We are part of an ordinary world, just like yourselves," organisers told The First Post.
 

The decision to invite bands to play "western, capitalist" music was designed to change people's perception of the Hermit Kingdom.
 

What it will resemble musically is anyone's guess as no bands have yet been confirmed and anyone who accepts the invitation will have to refrain from mentioning war, sex, violence, drugs, imperialism or "anti-socialism". Despite these strictures, the organisers hope to attract rock musicians such as Eric Clapton, U2 and - most surprising, given their redneck credentials - Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Bands that are invited to play will also be given the privilege of being able to explore any part of North Korea the government deems suitable.
 

If the Rock for Peace festival is a success, there is talk of making it a regular occurrence and even staging the next one in the DMZ (demilitarised zone) between North and South Korea, the most heavily guarded border on earth (***).
 

Kim Jong-il, North Korea's leader, will not attend the concert for security reasons. Known to harbour a taste for Western music and film, he will surely be watching closely on the state's single TV channel.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=2&subID=1097

N. Korea to hold rock festival in March (Yonhap, 11.17)

North Korea, under international censure for trying to arm itself with nuclear weapons, plans to host an international rock music festival next year, the country's main radio station said Friday.

The Voice of Korea said in a report that the "Rock for Peace" festival will be held in Pyongyang, the capital, on March 1, a major national holiday marking an anti-Japanese public uprising in 1919.

The North's radio station carried the same report in its English Web site, with an announcement that Western musicians, including U.S. rockers, are eligible to participate and play a gamut of rock music including heavy metal.

"This is the very first time that North Korea allows Western musicians in the heart of DPRK territory to play capitalist popular music," the English report said...

It's highly unusual that North Korea, a closed communist (****) society, has decided to hold the festival which will expose its hungry people to what it called "decadent" American music.

The North's report said there still will be "few restrictions and conditions" for participants in the festival, insisting that the lyrics should not praise "war, sex, violence, murder, drug, rape, non-governmental society, imperialism, colonialism, racism, anti-DPRK, and anti-socialism."
North Korea is one of the most closed societies in the world. Its entire social system is strictly geared to uphold and praise leader Kim Jong-il and his late father, Kim Il-sung.

The country is under U.N. sanctions over its nuclear weapons test on Oct. 9. It claims that its move to arm itself with nuclear weapons is to thwart Washington's attempt to topple its communist system.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/Engnews/20061117/670000000020061117181423E3.html

For those about to rock, Kim Jong-il salutes you (Guardian, 11.21)

Step aside Glastonbury, move over Lollapalooza - there's a new music festival vying for space on the international tour calendar. Rock For Peace, which takes place next May in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, "will be the 2007 version of Woodstock rock festival in 1969 but in a different location and with different goals".

Though not a place historically associated with free love and hippy wig-outs, all that is about to change, with organisers embracing "capitalist popular music" for the first time. And, in keeping with the laissez-faire spirit of rock festivals, there are few restrictions: "Lyrics should not contain admirations on war, sex, violence, murder, drug, rape, non-governmental society, imperialism, colonialism, racism, anti-DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), and anti-socialism."

That excludes anyone other than Cliff Richard then.
The event, organised by DPRK's Ministry of Culture and National Tourism, has been advertised on a website run by UK-based Voice of Korea (Vok), a mouthpiece for the DPRK. Jean-Baptiste Kim, the organisation's leader, explains: "Vok manages the event in London because it is practically impossible for foreigners to contact the concerned authorities neither by email nor by telephone."

Kim himself is hard to get hold of, declining to be interviewed through any medium other than email, although he stresses that he "will sincerely answer your questionnaire".

Kim's retiring attitude may be due to a lack of confidence in English. Further down the website there is a photograph of some ruddy-faced westerners posing with a football team. The caption reads: "Hey, Americans, you should learn a lot from our Norwegian friends who are having really good time with North Korean young school boys."

The line-up for Rock For Peace is yet to be announced, but the organisers claim interest from 49 acts in 20 countries. Bands are invited from any western country, "even though you are from USA".

http://music.guardian.co.uk/rock/story/0,,1953029,00.html

* Of course there will be (at least) no sex and drugs!! ^^

** Oh no.. it's not a stupid joke!!!!!! It's just a F.. STUPID JOKE!! (aeh~ it must be..!!)

*** It must be one of Kim Jong-il's most funny ideas: to send all rock musicans - especially from S.K. - on the mine fields..

**** Even I repeat myself: NK has nothing to do with "communism", or any kind of progressive society!!

Please check out the home page of the "organisers" very seriously, especially this:

"ALL OF US ARE UNITED IN NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA..

WE WILL FIGHT FOR OUR FATHERLAND UNTIL ALL OF US DIE ON THE BATTLEFIELDS."

YEAH, THAT'S THE REAL ROCK'N'ROLL!!