N. Korean Orchestra Delays Britain Tour Due to Funding: Report

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- A concert tour to Britain by North Korea's orchestra scheduled for this month has been postponed because of funding problems, a U.S. radio report said on Sept. 4.

North Korea's State Symphony Orchestra had planned to perform in London and
Middlesbrough, a mid-sized city in northeast Britain, on Sept. 17 and 19 in what
appeared to be a sign of the socialist country reaching out to the world.

But the trip was postponed indefinitely after an English bank retracted its
sponsorship of the tour citing a current credit crunch, the Washington-based
broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported, quoting the chief organizer, British
opera singer Suzannah Clarke.

"We'll replace the funding, but it will take time and a lot of effort,"
Clarke was quoted as saying. "The bank said that because of the credit
crunch and other economic difficulties they could not provide the sponsorship
they were expected to."

It will cost at least 400,000 pounds (US$720,000) to fund the trip, she added.

Clarke said she will visit North Korea next month to discuss the funding problems
with Pyongyang officials and again in the first half of next year to organize a
detailed concert program.

A native of Middlesbrough who has performed in North Korea, Clarke has been
trying to put the event together with six others, including David Heather, a
British businessman, Glyn Ford, a member of the European Parliament, and David
Alton, member of the British House of Lords who chairs a Britain-North Korea
joint parliamentary group.

Established in 1946, the North's orchestra has often performed in Eastern Europe
but has never performed in the West.