Song lyrics promoting the “blue sky of the motherland” might carry a whiff of indoctrination for the average British classroom. For primary school pupils in the Tees Valley, however, they have become an important part of the unlikeliest piece of cultural bridge-building.

Children more used to singing When the Saints go Marching in are now being taught North Korean anthems in preparation for the state orchestra’s first visit outside the world’s most secretive nation.

The unprecedented tour is part of a mission by a former steel worker turned operasinger to bring the 160-piece orchestra beyond the last Cold War frontier to Britain for a one-off performance in Middlesbrough. As one of the few Westerners to be invited to North Korea, the celebrated soprano Suzannah Clarke has been given permission by Kim Jong Il to bring the ensemble on tour to Britain.

The first stop will be the unlikely location of the Teesside town, which has shared a strange bond with Pyongyang ever since the North Korean football team delivered one of sport’s most surprising results when they beat Italy during the 1966 World Cup at the local stadium.

Now, in preparation for the orchestra’s arrival, primary schoolchildren in Middlesbrough are swapping their usual renditions for North Korean folk songs, more commonly performed during the dictatorship’s Arirang mass parades. The British-led project has the aim of bolstering cultural relations with the country that once underpinned the “axis of evil”.

America, which is still technically at war with North Korea, has also been invited to add a New York or Washington date to the tour, as the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea moves, albeit tentatively, towards greater dialogue with Western nations. “This could be a major peace initiative,” said Clarke, who has become something of a star in North Korea, having visited and performed in the country six times. “It is not simply about singing. Getting our children on stage with this orchestra is the first step to building greater cultural engagement with this country.

“I have spoken to people out there, and there is very good feeling towards the British, which is not necessarily the same when you mention America or Japan. We now have the chance to build on that.” She reassured parents who may be concerned by the spectre of the school choir singing in worship of a regime where more than 200,000 people are thought to be held in labour camps, and countless millions have died from floods, famine and economic mismanagement.

Clarke said: “I have deliberately chosen non-political songs, including the Arirang, which is enjoyed by both North and South Koreans as a celebration of their culture.” She added that military propaganda would not feature in the repertoire.

The tour, scheduled for this September or May next year, depending on the level of American involvement, will be the first time that the orchestra has been allowed to perform outside the reclusive Stalinist state. It follows a breakthrough last week, when the regime toppled its plutonium-producing reactor in a symbolic move to show its commitment to a nuclear disarmament deal. President Bush responded by lifting American trade sanctions on North Korea and removing it from a blacklist of states sponsoring terrorism.

Back in Middlesbrough, the class of 6 to 11-year-olds were more concerned with the pronunciation of Korean lyrics. Although the words “nuclear” and “dictator” were absent from the brief introduction to North Korea, the children were surprisingly preceptive, when asked what they thought the folk songs were about. “Is it about starvation, Miss?” “Are they singing about how many people have died?” “Was it about the war?”

“I didn’t really know about it before. I thought it was just like China or Japan,” Aleena Khalid, 10, said. “Now I want to see what the orchestra is like.”

Among the parents hoping to see their children sing with the orchestra is Jong Baik, an acupuncturist originally from Seoul, who now works in Darlington. Mr Baik said that he hoped that the arrival of the orchestra would bring his family a step closer to returning to the homeland his father fled more than four decades ago.

“Even a few years ago, this would have been unimaginable,” he said, on hearing the songs ring through the gymnasium of Ayresome Primary School. “It is quite surreal, and moving, to hear those songs somewhere like this. If even such a closed country as North Korea can open up to schoolchildren, it gives me hope.”

Songs of the motherland

From Arirang, a Korean folk song
If you leave and forsake me, my own,
Ere three miles you go, lame you’ll have grown
Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo/Arirang
Pass is the long road you go

Friendship song
You, thee lovely friends, let’s sing a song
Though we were born in different places of the country
We grew up to be close friends under the blue sky of the motherland

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