South Korean `national singer` Cho Yong-pil received generous applause from a North Korean audience of some 7,000 during his first solo concert in Pyongyang on August 23. Entitled `SBS Special: 60th Anniversary of National Liberation ? Cho Yong-pil Pyongyang 2005,` the concert took place at the Yugyeong Chung Chu-young Stadium in Pyongyang and lasted two hours.

Cho was the second Southern artist to give a solo concert in the North after Lee Mi-ja. During the concert, he performed his hit songs `Mona Lisa` and `Empty Space` as well as several popular North Korean songs, such as `Lullaby.` For the finale, he sang `Arirang of Our Dreams.`

Prior to the concert, Cho said that he had been thinking of giving a concert in the North since the 1990s, but had to wait until now to realize his dream. SBS broadcast the concert at 9:00 p.m. of that same day, while the North Korean broadcaster Joseon Central TV decided to show a recorded version later on.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang`s Korean Central News Agency reported on Cho`s concert on August 22. `