SHANGHAI (AP) — A South Korean violinist and a North Korean singer have held a rare joint performance they hope would help bring the divided Koreas closer together via music.

Sunday's performance at a Shanghai concert hall came at a time of emerging tensions amid deadlocked nuclear diplomacy. On Thursday, North Korea fired two suspected short-range missiles in the second such weapons test in five days.

Violinist Won Hyung Joon and his North Korean soprano partner, Kim Song Mi, met several times last year in Beijing and agreed on a joint performance to help promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.

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