Mystery shrouded the sudden cancelation of performances by North Korea’s Moranbong Band in China on Saturday, just hours ahead of a first planned concert outside their reclusive home county.
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North Korea’s national choir, which had gone to Beijing to perform with them, hurriedly packed their bags mid-rehearsal and got on a train heading to Pyongyang at 8 p.m. China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency only reported that their appearance was canceled due to “problems in communication”.
Speculation has swirled about the reason for the cancellation.
Officials then made a decision to limit the spectatorship to low-ranking Chinese officials that incited a backlash from the North Koreans, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
“China pays great attention to cultural exchanges with North Korea and is willing along with North Korea to keeping pushing cooperation forward on all levels, including cultural exchanges”, Hong added, without elaborating.
North Korea “strongly denounces” and “categorically rejects” the U.S. convocation of a UN Security Council meeting aimed at taking issue with the human rights record in Pyongyang, Xinhua cited a foreign ministry spokesman as saying on Saturday.
Additionally, a concert by a North Korean military chorus was cancelled.
Members of the Moranbong Band of North Korea arrive at Beijing International Airport before departing from Beijing, China in this photo taken by Kyodo December 12, 2015.
The group, Moranbong Band, has about 20 members, all slim young women who wear tight dresses and high heels while performing both Western pop songs and North Korean revolutionary standards. Their visit was seen as an indication of improving relations between China and its isolated neighbour.
Concert hall officials said that the performance had been cancelled.
A story posted a week prior to the Moranbong Band’s arrival, titled “Kim Jong-un’s dark secret”, was read over 100,000 times and detailed some of Kim’s previous relationships and mysteries around ex-girlfriends’ disappearances.
Since Liu Yunshan, the Chinese Communist Party’s fifth-ranked official, visited Pyongyang in October and held talks with North Korean leader Kim, there have been signs of improvement in bilateral ties.
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Several subsequent rounds of sabre rattling by North Korea towards South Korea and the United States have also tested China’s patience.
