Group: North Korea orchestra visit can spur change

Group: North Korea orchestra visit can spur change

ATLANTA (AP) — The organizers of an unprecedented U.S. visit by North Korea’s national orchestra hope it will help put the two enemy nations on a “road to reconciliation.”

The plan calls for the North Korean National Symphony Orchestra to bring 164 musicians, journalists and officials to the U.S. for an 18-day visit. The tour would start in Atlanta and end in New York.

It’s being organized by Global Resource Services, an Atlanta-based humanitarian group that works in North Korea.

Robert Springs, the group’s president, says the trip will cost $3 million. He hopes it will take place in the spring.

He says the orchestra’s visit will be a catalyst for “sustainable change” that will lead to more normalized relations between the two nations.

The U.S. State Department didn’t immediately comment.