Image caption Laibach are 'not a band making statements, but a band that is always questioning contemporary attitudes', Mr Traavik says 
 
 Controversial Slovenian pop group Laibach will be the first foreign band to perform in North Korea, director Morten Traavik has told the BBC. 
 
 Mr Traavik has arranged for the group to play two concerts in Pyongyang in August in front of 2,000 people. 
 
 The concert programme will include some of Laibach's hits over their 35-year career and North Korean folk songs. 
 
 The band has been slated by some critics because of its ambiguous use of political and nationalist imagery. 
 
 But admirers say that their tendency to wear military uniforms on stage is a critique of totalitarian ideology. 
 
 Norwegian director Mr Traavik says that in North Korea they will be uncontroversial - even performing songs from The Sound of Music. 
 
 Also on their play list is one of this year's most popular hits in North Korea, performed by the all-girl band Moranbong: We Will Go To Mount Paektu. 
 
 Image caption Mr Traavik (with guitar) has organised numerous musical and cultural performances in North Korea, winning the trust of the authorities 
 
 Mount Paektu is the tallest peak on the Korean peninsula and is the mythological birthplace of the whole Korean nation. 
 
 "North Korea is portrayed in the West as the world's most closed country, but in fact it is more open to the outside world than the prevailing media narrative suggests," Mr Traavik said. 
 
 "Both the country and the band have been portrayed by some as fascist outcasts. The truth is that both are misunderstood." 
 
 The Laibach performances on 19 and 20 August - which coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Korean peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonisation - would never have been possible without Mr Traavik's contacts and artistic direction. 
 
 Image caption Laibach have been slated by some critics because of its ambiguous use of political and nationalist imagery 
 
 He is one of the few Western directors regularly to have arranged artistic and cultural exchanges with North Korea and over the last five years has won the trust of the authorities. 
 
 "Building up that trust is so important for a country that has been cut off from the outside world for so long," Mr Traavik said. 
 
 Despite its extremist reputation individual members of Laibach have not been vetted by the North Korean authorities because the director has given his word that they will not cause an upset. 
 
 "I have informed the North Korean authorities of their bad boy reputation and reassured them that it is a reputation that can very easily be disproved of. 
 
 "If they were really fascist, why would Poland's cultural ministry recently have asked them to reinterpret partisan songs in Warsaw to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the uprising against the Nazis in the city? 
 
 "Surely Poland - which arguably suffered most at the hands of the Nazis - would never make such a mistake unless it knew the band is in fact parodying totalitarianism?" 
 
 The director argues that much of misunderstanding surrounding the band stems from their tendency in the 1980s and 90s to wear military uniforms on stage. 
 
 "But Laibach are not a band making statements, but a band that is always questioning contemporary attitudes," Mr Traavik said. 
 
 Image copyright Laibach Image caption The Laibach poster for their forthcoming North Korea tour 
 
 Who are Laibach? ||||| 2015/07/14 19:40 
 
 (ATTN: CLARIFIES 3rd last para) 
 
 SEOUL, July 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has unveiled a rare tour program that includes two-day concerts by Slovenian band Laibach in Pyongyang next month for foreign tourists, a Beijing-based tour company said Tuesday. 
 
 Koryo Tours, which takes about 2,500 Western tourists to North Korea a year, has made public a tourist program on its website that includes two concerts by Laibach on Aug. 19-20 in Pyongyang, the first performance of its kind in the North. 
 
 The concerts will take place twice at the Kim Won Gyun musical conservatory to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, it said. 
 
 The five-day tour package that starts Aug. 18 will also contain visits to main attractions in Pyongyang and the border city of Kaesong, it added. 
 
 Laibach, whose visual style is suggestive of Nazi-era propaganda, said on its website that its main mission is to give a chance to many North Koreans to enjoy its music, but the members are working hard to ensure that foreign visitors can watch the concerts as well. 
 
 Koryo Tours also added that the "final itinerary may differ slightly" as the matters related to the Laibach concerts are subject to final approval by relevant North Korean authorities. 
 
 North Korea is ramping up efforts to attract foreign tourists as a set of sanctions by the United Nations and Western countries make it difficult for Pyongyang to earn hard currency. 
 
 sooyeon@yna.co.kr 
 
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– North Korea is opening its borders to the first foreign band to put on a show, and Slovenian pop group Laibach isn't exactly a predictable choice. The band, known for wearing military uniforms on stage, has a "bad boy reputation," director Morten Traavik, who's arranged several performances in North Korea, tells the BBC, adding that he's told North Korea that "it is a reputation that can very easily be" shed. Yonhap News reports the band's "visual style is suggestive of Nazi-era propaganda," but the band is simply "parodying totalitarianism," says Traavik. "Both the country and the band have been portrayed by some as fascist outcasts. The truth is that both are misunderstood." Laibach is expected to perform its own hits, North Korean folk songs, the popular North Korean hit "We Will Go To Mount Paektu" by Moranbong, and, somewhat improbably, tunes from The Sound of Music in front of 2,000 people on Aug. 19 and 20. Traavik says North Korean authorities are relying on his authority and haven't investigated band members individually. "North Korea is, the way we see it, the utopian experiment," frontman Ivan "Jani" Novak tells the AFP. "We always felt really good in any kind of utopia."