The New York Philharmonic offered more details yesterday about its planned visit to North Korea, even while a prominent American diplomat criticized the trip and the American State Department’s support for it.

At a news conference yesterday, the Philharmonic’s president and executive director, Zarin Mehta, and its chairman, Paul Guenther, were joined by North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, Pak Gil Yon. While Mr. Guenther expressed faith in “the power of music [to] cross boundaries and cultural differences,” Mr. Pak repeatedly — in fact, somewhat robotically — answered questions about North Korea’s purpose in extending the invitation by stating that the Philharmonic’s visit “will surely deepen the understanding and friendship between the musicians and the people of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and the United States.”

The Philharmonic will perform on February 26, 2008, at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre, which seats 1,500 people, Mr. Mehta said. The program will include Wagner’s Prelude to Act III of “Lohengrin”; Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” and George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.” As is its tradition when on tour internationally, the orchestra will also play “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the North Korean national anthem. The Philharmonic intends the concert to be broadcast on television, including in the America, Mr. Mehta said, but a broadcaster has not yet been chosen.

During the 48-hour visit, the orchestra also plans to hold master classes for students in the Pyongyang music conservatory. Students will also be able to attend the orchestra’s rehearsal.

North Korea is a totalitarian state, where some 200,000 people are held in prison camps. According to a recent book, “Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea,” by Jasper Becker, starvation has so stunted people’s growth that the average North Korean is eight inches shorter than the average South Korean.

In an interview, the former American Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said that the orchestra’s visit “legitimates the regime, which is still on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, has kidnapped people from South Korea and Japan and never given an adequate explanation, and not done a single thing on the nuclear front.” The visit “reduces the Philharmonic to the level of doing ping-pong diplomacy with a bunch of terrorists,” he said. Asked why he thought the North Koreans extended the invitation, he said it was part of their propaganda. “It makes them appear less despotic than they are.”

The chairman of the Korea Society, Donald Gregg, who attended the news conference, said that the visit, like anything that opens North Korea to the outside world, would have a positive effect. “Those who oppose it are saying that the North Koreans don’t deserve to hear this [music],” Mr. Gregg said. “But that confuses what they deserve and what they need. A country that has been as isolated as North Korea has a great need to become acquainted with the wonders of the free world.”

The Philharmonic first received an invitation to perform in North Korea in August, through a third-party intermediary. The North Korean Ministry of Culture issued a formal invitation in September. In October, a small group from the Philharmonic traveled to North Korea, along with the executive director of the Korea Society, Frederick Carriere, and a member of the State Department’s Office of Korean Affairs. They visited several theaters and hotels and looked into further logistics of the trip.

From beginning to end, the State Department’s support was crucial to their decision to accept the invitation, Mr. Mehta and Mr. Guenther said yesterday. In October, the chief American negotiator with North Korea, Christopher Hill, came to New York to talk with the orchestra’s musicians and answer their concerns about the visit. After hearing from Mr. Hill, Mr. Mehta said, “We all came to see that this unlikely endeavor could become a milestone.”

At the State Department’s daily press conference yesterday morning, the department’s spokesman, Sean McCormack, responded to a question about the Philharmonic’s visit by saying that, while the department encouraged it, it was a “private effort” and would not in itself contribute to a change in relations between the governments, which would depend instead on North Korea’s decision to denuclearize. The State Department provided some early logistical support to the Philharmonic. But as of now, the Philharmonic has not requested any additional support.

The concert is being underwritten by a patron of the orchestra, Yoko Nagae Ceschina. Air transportation from Beijing, where the orchestra will perform just prior, to Pyongyang, and from Pyongyang to Seoul, where the orchestra will perform on February 28, is being provided by Asiana Airlines. It is not clear who will attend the concert in Pyongyang. “We explained to them that we’d like to see a wide range of people” in the audience, Mr. Mehta said, but he added that he did not know how, or if, the government plans to advertise the performance. Asked if North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-Il, would attend, Mr. Pak said he did not have Kim Jong-Il’s schedule for that day.