Unhasu Orchestra
| Unhasu Orchestra | |
| Chosŏn'gŭl | 은하수관현악단 |
|---|---|
| Hancha | 銀河水管絃樂團 |
| Revised Romanization | Eunhasu Gwanhyeonakdan |
| McCune–Reischauer | Ŭnhasu Gwanhyŏnaktan |
The Unhasu Orchestra is a musical group based in Pyongyang, North Korea. It performs primarily with Western instruments, sometimes performing alongside traditional Korean soloists. The orchestra has a concert hall, the Unhasu Theater in Pyongyang, dedicated for its use.Ri Sol-ju, the wife of Kim Jong-un, is a former singer in this group.
On 14 March 2012, the South Korean conductor Myung-whun Chung led the combined orchestras of Unhasu Orchestra and the Radio France Philharmonic in the Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris, France. The pan-Korean folk song called "Arirang" was played.
On August 29, 2013, The Chosun Ilbo reported, based on anonymous sources in China, that key members of the Moranbong Band and Unhasu Orchestra were made to watch the execution by firing squad of certain members of the Unhasu Orchestra, including violinist Mun Kyong-jin, members of the Wangjaesan Light Music Band, and the singer Hyon Song-wol (since seen alive on NK television in 2014), on the orders of Kim Jong-un. According to the Chosun Ilbo report, the Unhasu Orchestra was then disbanded. The executed members of the band have been named by the music journalist Norman Lebrecht as the concertmasters Moon, Gyeong-Jin, and Jung, Sun-Young. Other reporters are skeptical of The Chosun Ilbo report, such as Chad O'Carroll of NK News, a North Korean analyst website. O'Carroll told Business Insider, "You've got to remember that a lot of the time the source is South Korean and it's in their interest to distort or perhaps weave the truth every now and then." John Delury from the Yonsei University in Seoul, told The Guardian, "This stuff gets planted regularly in media outlets and then quickly goes viral. There's a global appetite for any North Korea story and the more salacious the better. Some of it is probably true – but a great deal of it is probably not." Delury also added: "The normal standards of journalism are thrown out of the window because the attitude is: 'It's North Korea – no one knows what's going on in there." Hyon Song-wol, the focus of many of the reports, was later shown to be alive and well.
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