The group was seen hastily departing for Beijing airport on Saturday afternoon, catching the next Air Koryo flight back to Pyongyang.
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They were seen off by North Korean Ambassador Ji Jae-ryong at the airport. That’s when Hyun ordered the band members to pack their bags for a return to Pyongyang. They had traveled to Beijing by train.
It is not immediately known why the band had to leave Beijing.
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Monday that he has “no information to offer” on the concert’s cancellation other than what was reported by the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Others analyzed that rude South Korean media questions to band leader Hyun Song-wol, who had been rumored to have been executed for appearing in illicit sex tapes and for incurring the jealousy of her rival and Kim Jong-un’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, had insulted the “highest dignity” of Kim Jong-un.
Cheong Seong Chang, a senior analyst with the Sejong Institute think-tank in Seoul, said there were indications that Kim on Saturday had declared a mourning period ahead of the fourth anniversary of the death of his father next week.
It is not yet clear why the performances were cancelled.
The all-girl group was to have performed for invited guests at the National Centre for the Performing Arts.
The Moranbong Band had been scheduled to hold three concerts in Beijing beginning Saturday night in what was viewed as a visit to cultivate ties between the countries.
According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing government sources, China had chose to send only lower-ranking cadres to the propaganda band’s show, a response to show their anger at Mr Kim’s boast last week that the North possessed a hydrogen bomb.
Since becoming China’s president in March 2013, Xi Jinping has never met with Kim.
Officially, the only word coming out of Beijing is that the concerts fell through because of a “miscommunication”.
The Communist Party of China’s International Liaison Department, which invited Moranbong, deleted photos on its website of its director, Song Tao, shaking hands with North Korean Workers Party secretary Choe Hui, who accompanied the performers and abridged related text.
‘The visit by the State Merited Chorus and Moranbong Band will contribute to deepening friendship and boosting the cultural and artistic exchanges between the peoples of the two countries’.
Whatever the reason for calling off the event just three hours before it started, experts say the move is a diplomatic blunder that could have an impact on economic cooperation between North Korea and its only worldwide ally.
The Chinese public showed a keen interest in the group, even resorting to buying tickets on the black market.
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“A new line-up of power elites in the Kim Jong-un administration will be revealed”, it said, adding Kim is apparently confident of his grip on state affairs.
