I think this is something I can support as being good engagement with North Korea:

North Korea’s orchestras are eager to travel to the United States and replicate the New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s bravura performance in February in the North Korean capital. The negotiations for such a visit that are underway between North Korean officials and American music leaders indicate that informal cultural diplomacy is advancing beyond government-sponsored efforts to ease tensions between the two nations.

The Philharmonic’s president and executive director, Zarin Mehta, who led the orchestra’s trip to Pyongyang, said North Korean music leaders have asked if they can bring an orchestra to play for American audiences. The New York-based Korea Society is brokering discussions among North Korea’s U.N. mission, the State Department and the Philharmonic with a goal of bringing 160 performers from Pyongyang’s State Symphony Orchestra to New York’s Lincoln Center next year, according to a spokesman in Mehta’s office.

The Korea Society’s executive director, Frederick F. Carriere, who is planning how to raise the estimated $750,000 cost of the proposed visit, said the State Department gave its tentative approval in October. The trip, he warned, depends on whether U.S.-North Korean relations do not deteriorate further.  [Washington Post]

The cost of $750,000 for the trip is not outrageous because it comes out to $4,687 per North Korean performer which should be about the cost of flying the a performer over and staying in New York.

As the article suggests, I am willing to bet that the North Koreans will use this musical performance as a bargaining chip in negotiations.  If the US side wants to support this trip then I recommend the State Department tells the North Koreans that the trip will be immediately cancelled if it is used a bargaining chip in negotations between the two countries.

Anyway the article then goes on to promote Barack Obama as some kind of North Korean human rights advocate:

President-elect Barack Obama urged the Bush administration during the election campaign to push for an end to the forced deportation by China of North Korean defectors.

“They should not be forcibly returned into persecution; they should have the protection to which asylum seekers and refugees are entitled under international law,” Obama said in May in a letter to the Korean Church Coalition for North Korea Freedom. “These issues should be on the table when we talk to countries in the region, including China.”

Maybe the author of this article, Nora Boustany should ask the family of Kim Dong-shik how much Obama cares about North Korean human rights.