It was the largest contingent of Americans to appear here since the conflict. This time, they came bearing bows and basses rather than arms and armor. The brass will issue fanfares, not orders.

The orchestra came for a concert on Tuesday at the East Pyongyang Grand Theater, where the music of Gershwin, Dvorak and Wagner, not to mention the American and North Korean national anthems, is to be broadcast live on state radio and television — an unheard of circumstance for a populace screened by rigid government censorship from the rest of the world.