Visiting or working in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK – North Korea), you quickly become aware of the allpervasiveness of music. Stay in a hotel in the capital, Pyongyang, and you will be woken up at least once a week, except in winter, by a band playing on the street outside. The music will be in a standard format; almost certainly in march-time, and vaguely familiar – perhaps Russian? It will be the same at a concert or to a theatrical performance. Listen carefully, however, and you realise that it is not any piece of music that you know. To understand this, and much more about the DPRK, readers now have Keith Howard's comprehensive English language account and interpretation. Howard has had a long and distinguished career as an authority on Korean music. Much of his writing has been on traditional music in the Republic of Korea (ROK – South Korea), from its origins in court and religious rituals through to today's vibrant popular music, but he has periodically looked at the music scene and the role of music in the DPRK.

He outlines the difficulties of such a study, shared by all who look at a country that is better known in caricature than reality. There are major problems in anything that involves politics, but everything involves politics. The historical record is unreliable since it changes to suit current needs. “Traditional” songs are adapted to present needs, and even ROK pop music, officially anathema, may be used with new words. All this is presented as “traditional music”. The emphasis, in theory, is on the music of ordinary people; the music of the court and other forms of what might be called the classical Korean tradition, which are studied and performed in the ROK, are rejected. Yet much of what passes for traditional in the DPRK is derived from late nineteenth and early twentieth century sources, including Viennese waltz, Japanese popular music from the colonial period (1910–1945), Christian hymns, and Western brass band music. Many Korean musicians active in the early years of the DPRK trained in Japan. Although they were eventually purged, their influence remained. At the same time, those early years saw a determined effort to collect real traditional songs, even before a similar movement in the ROK. Much was lost in the process.