"We don't go to North Korea to provoke North Koreans and North Korean authorities, we are actually going there to provoke everybody outside of North Korea."

Ivan Novak is speaking ahead of his band's planned visit to North Korea, the rogue nation that is notorious for its totalitarian regime and isolation from the outside world.

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That was until Laibach arrived. The Slovenian avant-garde group will become the first western band to perform in North Korea next month as part of the 70th anniversary celebrations of the country's liberation from Japan.

Laibach, whose name is the German for the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, formed in communist Yugoslavia in 1980 and is one of the country's best known bands.

Their music videos and live performances often use controversial images and costumes that invoke totalitarianism, but Novak told Reuters that the group was not performing out of support for Kim Jong-un's regime but to provoke debate outside the isolated country's borders.

"We are not interested in supporting the regime, that's not our main objective. Of course people are going to try to use it. And we also don't go to North Korea to provoke North Koreans and North Korean authorities, we are actually going there to provoke everybody outside of North Korea," he said.

Laibach
Laibach will be the first foreign band to perform in North Korea Getty Images

The four-piece band, whose music features loud percussion, pounding march-like rhythms and roaring vocals, will hold two concerts in Pyongyang on 19 and 20 August.

We also don't go to North Korea to provoke North Koreans and North Korean authorities, we are actually going there to provoke everybody outside of North Korea.
- Ivan Novak, Laibach

They plan to perform their own versions of songs from "The Sound of Music", mainly because, it is said, the 1965 US musical is well-known in North Korea.

Norwegian cultural activist Morten Traavik, who is organising the Laibach gigs in North Korea, told Reuters last week it took almost a year to get permission for the concert. Novak claims that the fact they are performing in the rogue nation is a positive sign for opening up diplomatic talks with the West in the future.

"The whole step towards changes is a long step, it's a big process, it's not that easy to do it and they have to decide by themselves obviously. I think they are trying. They are actually opening their doors and the result of getting Laibach into North Korea is basically one of those, one of those showmarks that they are actually opening", he said.

The concerts will also be subject of a documentary film scheduled to premiere in 2016.

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