By Jon Herskovitz

PYONGYANG, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The unprecedented concert of the New York Philharmonic made the world's front pages on Wednesday, but in North Korea merited only brief mention in the main communist daily.

North Koreans, more used to music that extols the virtues of their leaders, gave a standing ovation to the performance by the oldest U.S. orchestra on Tuesday night in a concert that both sides had said they hoped would ease tension between the long-time Cold War foes.

A story on the concert was on page four of the communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun with a picture of the event. The front page was reserved for news that leader Kim Jong-il had sent flowers of congratulations to the new president of Cuba.

The newspaper report on the concert was heavy on who among the North's elite cadres attended but noted that the "playing was very sophisticated and sensitive."

The North Korean KCNA news agency gave a similar report in its English service, swiftly followed by a longer, and more typical, story saying that a military cooperation agreement by U.S. and South Korea "warmongers" was "an intolerable criminal act to bring the danger of war to the Korean Peninsula".

SOUTH KOREAN OPTIMISM

In South Korea, the media reaction was effusive, some editorials saying the concert could signal a thawing of ties between Washington and Pyongyang.

"An overture to peace between the North and the United States," was the headline of the mainstream JoongAng Ilbo daily's editorial.

"Considering the brainwashing by the North all these years that the United States is the arch enemy, this is a sensational change."

The concert came a day after South Korea inaugurated its new conservative president, Lee Myung-bak, who has vowed to be far less tolerant than his predecessor of the North's behaviour, promising aid and investment only if it completely gives up its efforts to be a nuclear weapons power.

The concert was born out of talks last year on ending the impoverished North's nuclear arms programme in exchange for aid and allowing the ostracised state to join the world economy.

The Bush administration in public played down the event, the White House saying that any future cultural exchanges depended on North Korea's cooperation on the nuclear issue.

"I think at the end of the day we consider this concert to be a concert, and it's not a diplomatic coup," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

North Korea last year agreed to an international deal towards dismantling its atomic weapons programme but is two months past a deadline to give a full account of what it has actually done so far to develop an arsenal.

Leader Kim Jong-il was not among the 2,000 who attended the invitation-only concert, and it was obvious from early on that he would not be when guests, mostly middle-aged men in dark suits and red lapel badges with images of the state founder Kim Il-sung, filed in to very little security.

The streets of Pyongyang were largely deserted while the concert at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre was aired live on the North's state-controlled TV network.

"I watched the concert with my family last night," a hotel worker said. "It was wonderful."

A chartered flight will arrive in the South later on Wednesday carrying the musicians, international journalists and official and unofficial U.S. visitors back from Pyongyang.

(Writing by Jack Kim, editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Sanjeev Miglani)

(Take a look at the Reuters Global News Blog for more on the NY Philharmonic's visit:http://blogs.reuters.com/global/

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