The North Koreans opened the door to some 400 people, the largest contingent of Americans to visit this isolated, totalitarian state since the Korean War ended in 1953. The group includes musicians, orchestra staff, television production crews and 80 journalists, as well as patrons who paid $100,000 a couple.

Image Lorin Maazel, the director of the New York Philharmonic, presented a bouquet to a performer. Credit... Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

They came bearing bows and basses rather than the arms and armor Americans carried the last time this large a contingent set foot in the North Korean capital. The brass will issue fanfares, not orders.

Critics hold out little hope that this updated version of ping-pong diplomacy, sports and cultural exchanges that helped warm relations with Maoist China in the 1970s, will do much to transform North Korea under Kim Jong-il. Mr. Kim has cracked open North Korea’s door to outside businessmen, sports teams and diplomats in the past without allowing significantly more pluralism in the country’s regimented economic and political life, and there are few signs that the arrival of the New York orchestra signals a major shift in direction.

The Bush administration has kept its distance from the event. Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, visited Seoul on Monday for South Korea’s presidential inauguration, but said she had no plans to come to Pyongyang and sought to play down the performance as a diplomatic instrument.

Even so, some proponents of engagement with North Korea say they hope that the visit will nudge North Korea to greater contact with the outside world as China, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia press Pyongyang to end its nuclear program.