As Western European governments keep cutting cultural subsidies, South Korea, where interest in Western classical music has blossomed since the end of World War II, seems to be eager to increase its expenditure in this area. Last summer, after visiting South Korea from 1 to 8 August, I realised how important “going West” is for a country still threatened by a nuclear power, its neighbour North Korea. Indeed, South Korean cultural policies made me feel as if I were in Germany or France... back in the 1960s.
The fact that The Economist, International Herald Tribune and CNN did not stop talking about nuclear threats over the whole week made this impression even deeper. As Christopher Hill, chief U.S. envoy to North Korea and the lead U.S. negotiator, was in Beijing trying to persuade that hermetic communist country to slow down its nuclear…
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