North and South Korean musicians perform together in China

A South Korean violinist and a North Korean singer on Sunday, May 12 held a rare joint performance they hope would help bring the divided Koreas closer together via music  especially at a time of emerging tensions amid deadlocked nuclear diplomacy.

Violinist Won Hyung Joon and his North Korean soprano partner, Kim Song Mi, performed together at Shanghai Oriental Art Center with a Chinese orchestra. 

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Their concert came three days after South Korea said North Korea fired two suspected short-range missiles toward the sea in the second such weapons test in five days.

For both, it was their first concert with a musician from the other side of the Korean border, the world's most heavily fortified. 

They met several times last year in Beijing and agreed on a joint performance to help promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.

As a duet, Kim sang Antonin Dvorak's "Songs My Mother Taught Me" while Won played the violin. 

Kim later sang "Arirang," a Korean traditional folk tune beloved in both countries, while the Shanghai City Symphony Orchestra played the music.

"When I met her (Kim) for the first time, I felt like I was reuniting with an old friend who's been on the same wavelength with me," Won said before Sunday's concert. "This performance shouldn't be the end ... and what's important now is what other dreams we can have together." In a pre-concert written interview, Kim also said she "heartily wishes" that her songs would help bring back reconciliation mood. 

"I'm nervous and anxious about what inspiration the audience would have and what reaction North and South Korean compatriots would show to our joint performance," she said.

North and South Korean musicians performing together is extremely rare as their governments don't even allow their citizens to exchange phone calls, letter and emails without special approvals. 

Sunday's concert won't likely work as a breakthrough in the stalled nuclear diplomacy. 

But it could still "establish an environment" that could make it easier to improve ties between the Koreas, said analyst Cho Han Bum at Seoul's Korea Institute for National Unification.