N. Korean Pianist Defects

Kim [Chul-Woong], a former pianist who played in a state-run symphony orchestra in Pyongyang, risked his life to come to South Korea in 2002 for the sole purpose of playing jazz, which is ostracized in the North as “U.S. imperialistic reactionary music.”

“I liked jazz too much,” Kim, 33, said in a recent interview at a coffee shop in northern Seoul. “I needed the freedom of music.

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