Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim has held a concert in South Korea, near the tense border with North Korea.

Barenboim led his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra of Israeli and Arab musicians Monday in a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, aimed at promoting peace on the Korean peninsula. A South Korean choir accompanied the choral fourth movement of the work.

Barenboim has said that music cannot solve conflicts, but it has the ability to involve people in a shared experience, which could make dialogue easier.

The concert took place in the Imjingak peace park adjacent to the military buffer zone between the two nations.

South Korea Monday marked the 66th anniversary of independence from Japanese colonial rule.

The two Koreas are technically still at war as they never signed a peace treaty after the Korean War ended in 1953.

Monday's concert comes just months after Barenboim and his orchestra played their first concert in the Gaza Strip in May.

The Israeli conductor founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with the late Palestinian-American academic Edward Said more than a decade ago to promote peace. The group performed in the West Bank city of Ramallah in 2005.