DPRK stages first Western pop show

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

European Pop Act First of its Kind to Perform in Pyongyang

On August 19-20, 2015, the musical group Laibach will do a ‘Liberation Day’ tour of Pyongang, capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), also known as North Korea. Chogukhaebangŭi nal or ‘Liberation of the Fatherland Day’, known in the West as ‘Victory over Japan Day’, commemorates the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan following a series of heinous crimes against humanity carried out by the American government against civilian non-combatants in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Laibach has generated a fair deal of controversy over the years, stemming mainly from their deliberately provocative appropriation of Nazi aesthetics, including the swastika and Schutzstaffel (SS) uniforms. The band was formed in Yugoslavia in June 1980, less than a month after the death of the iconic Balkan leader Josip Broz Tito. This corresponds precisely to the historical moment where ethno-separatist and nationalist trends began to rise sharply in Yugoslavia, culminating in a series of wars and atrocities leading to the country’s disintegration. The band sings in German (although not exclusively), and a bit of onomastic digging reveals that the band took its name from the German word for Ljubljana, the capital of the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia which was occupied by both Italian fascists and then Nazi Germans during the Second World War.

While the band’s visit is unlikely to signal the forthcoming addition of Pyongyang to the standard circuit for artists like Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, or Iggy Azalea, the show is still remarkable for a number of reasons. [continued in article]

[Bala Perdida]

Weird that they picked them to be the first. Who's even gonna go to that?

[Sasha]

They actively lobbyd for the opportunity, i dont think they themselves expected to be allowed. Guess the regime is not in on the joke that its an anti - tolitarian art project.