Eric Clapton is big in Pyongyang

Dear Lead Guitarist? WikiLeaks’ latest batch of cables includes a 2007 dispatch from the U.S. embassy in Seoul relaying an unidentified informant’s suggestions for improving communication with North Korea. Among them:

BOOK ERIC CLAPTON

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¶9. (C) XXXXXXXXXXXX passed on the suggestion from his North Korean interlocutors that the USG arrange for Eric Clapton to perform a concert in Pyongyang. As Kim Jong-il’s second son, Kim Jong-chol, is reported to be a great fan, the performance could be an opportunity to build good will.

We knew this — the Financial Times reported in February 2008 that Pyongyang had invited Clapton to perform around the same time it had invited the New York Philharmonic, and that Clapton was receptive to the idea. But in light of Kim Jong Un’s recent anointment as his father’s successor, it’s worth noting the weirdly outsized role that Clapton has played in North Korean politics: Kim Jong Chul reportedly began to fall out of favor as a prospective heir to the Kim dynasty after he and his girlfriend were spotted at a Clapton concert in Germany in 2006. (Eldest son Kim Jong Nam infamously took himself out of the running five years earlier.)

Western pop music is banned in North Korea, so it’s not entirely clear why Pyongyang would have made an exception for Clapton. Maybe other classic rock acts hit too close to home.