SEOUL (Reuters) - It's not every day that a jazz-inspired pianist has to make a life or death decision about his art, and it is not every day a gifted musician flees North Korea.
Kim Cheol-woong, 31, was a North Korean prodigy who was trained in classical music and destined to play the patriotic and martial tunes that hymn Pyongyang's leaders.
While studying overseas, Kim heard jazz piano for the first time and was fascinated. He returned home knowing this was the music he wanted to play, but that he would have to flee the strictly regimented state to realize his dream.
One night in 2001, he made the perilous trip across the Tumen River into China and reached Yanbian, an autonomous Chinese prefecture where many ethnic Koreans live.
He went on to South Korea two years later but still he will not talk about how he crossed the Tumen or of his attempts to leave China for the South.
Kim now teaches music at a university in Seoul, and dreams of playing at New York's Carnegie Hall.
As an artist, he thought he would die a slow death in North Korea.
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