Laibach to be the first foreign band to perform in North Korea

Controversial Slovenian band Laibach will be the first foreign band to perform in North Korea, director Morten Traavik has revealed.

While talking to the BBC, Traavik said that the pop group wasn't a band making statements, but a band that is always questioning contemporary attitudes."

He has arranged for the group to play two concerts in Pyongyang in August in front of 2,000 people, and the show will feature some of Laibach's hits over their 35-year career and North Korean folk songs.

Known and even slated by some critics due to their ambiguous use of political and nationalist imagery, the band claims to be "uncontroversial" in North Korea, and will perform songs from 'The Sound of Music,' with this year's hits in North Korea, performed by the all-girl band Moranbong: 'We Will Go To Mount Paektu' also on their play list.

The performance dates, 19 and 20 August, coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Korean peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonization.