A violinist’s view of a Korean War scenario

Civilian exchanges between North and South Korea will not directly prevent war or halt North Korea’s nuclear program. But if even these non-political means are not possible, peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula will not come.

Won Hyung-joonThe author is a violinist and the founder and director of The Lindenbaum Festival Orchestra, established in 2009 in the hopes of bringing together South and North Korea through music.

“The point is, art never stopped a war and never got anybody a job. That was never its function. Art cannot change events. But it can change people. It can affect people so that they are changed … because people are changed by art — enriched, ennobled, encouraged — they then act in a way that may affect the course of events … by the way they vote, they behave, the way they think.”

This is a quote from the world renowned maestro Leonard Bernstein. Netflix recently released a film “Maestro” (2023), introducing Bernstein as an American composer, conductor and a pianist. But he was more than just a talented musician. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he formed the United Orchestra to conduct Beethoven’s “Choral Symphony” and founded the Pacific Music Festival (PMF) in Sapporo, Japan in 1990 to engage young musicians in efforts to end the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

War tensions on the Korean peninsula have been escalating recently. Georgetown University professor Robert Gallucci, who served as the U.S. negotiator during the first North Korean nuclear crisis in the 1990s, recently wrote in the National Interest that “the idea that nuclear war could break out in Northeast Asia in 2024 should at least be on the table.”

Middlebury Institute of International Studies Fellow Robert Carlin and Professor Siegfried Hecker also warned by writing on 38 North, an online news web about North Korea, that “the situation on the Korean Peninsula is more dangerous than at any time since early June 1950.”

The military standoff between the two Koreas has intensified, and inter-Korean relations have reached a new low.

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The inter-Korean dialog has been suspended for the longest period of time in history, and the inter-Korean telecommunications line — the only remaining channel of communication — was cut off in April last year. In addition, the Ministry of Unification has not approved, or accepted, any of the recent “pre-contact reports” submitted from South Koreans. According to the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act, South Koreans who wish to contact a North Korean citizen, are obliged to submit a pre-notification form to the Ministry of Unification at least six days in advance, stating the personal information of the person to be contacted, the purpose of the contact, the circumstances, the planned time and place, and the method. The Ministry of Unification then decides whether to authorize the contact or decline.

It’s been more than 30 years since Bernstein died. If Bernstein were alive today, and if he were a South Korean, he would undoubtedly try to communicate with North Korea through music. However, he would not have been authorized by the Ministry of Unification to do so. It’s difficult to even imagine Bernstein’s historic pre-unification concert in East and West Germany being suppressed by the U.S. or the Soviet Union.

In May 2019, I organized a joint inter-Korean concert with a North Korean soprano singer in Shanghai, China.

At that time, the Ministry of Unification approved my pre-contact report and the concert was able to be organized. It was dreams come true after nearly 10 years of hard work. Both North and South Korean musicians began their first rehearsal under the guidance of the host — a Chinese orchestra. We rehearsed Dvorak’s “Songs my Mother taught me” and an arrangement of “Arirang” together. For a moment, we felt unified.

However, the rehearsal was interrupted when the news broke that North Korea had conducted a missile test. The North Korean singer told me that she might be asked by Pyongyang not to go on the stage and that she might have to cancel her performance. That’s when I had to put aside that feeling of unity I had felt for a moment, and realized that North and South Koreas are still at war.

I did not want to miss this chance. The host of this concert and I began to convince the North Korean soprano. We told her how we had been preparing for this so hard and anticipating for this joint performance, and that it would let down the audience if we cancel it now. It seemed like it wasn’t up to the North Korean singer to make the decision. The North Korean singer made a phone call and she seemed to be convincing someone. I still remember her words when she returned to us a few hours later: The concert will not be canceled!”

A North Korean missile test threatened to cancel the concert between South and North Korean musicians. But it couldn’t — and the concert ended as a huge success. We received a huge applause from the Chinese audience who filled the concert hall. The Chinese conductor and the North and South Korean musicians shook hands and showed appreciation to each other on stage for playing in harmony, and for a brief moment, it was evident that we were united through music across national and racial lines. It was the trust built through music that allowed the concert to go on even though military tensions threatened to cancel it. The North Korean singer convinced Pyongyang not to cancel the concert and reassured the host.

It was a moment of realization for me — that it is people who start the war on the Korean Peninsula and also people who can stop the war.

Non-political artistic, sports, and academic exchanges between the two Koreas should be encouraged, and the “pre-contact notification system” for North Koreans should be abolished. Civilian dialogue between the two Koreas is essential, especially in the current situation of rising military tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the threat of nuclear war. In fact, there is no need for the South Korean government to regulate non-political dialogues and exchanges when the North Korean regime is preventing them.

Civilian dialogue and exchanges between North and South Korea will not directly prevent war or halt North Korea’s nuclear program. But if even these non-political means are not possible, peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula will not come.