But the performance could not be staged as scheduled due to “communication issues at the working level”, Xinhua News Agency said.
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The cancellation of a musical performance isn’t a serious long-term setback for China-North Korea relations, but it does symbolize the current state of ties. The band and the chorus, who arrived in the Chinese capital on Thursday by train from Pyongyang, were slated to take the stage of the biggest music hall at the National Center for the Performing Arts, located near Tiananmen Square. It would have been the first-ever foreign performance for the band, and one of three concerts scheduled.
They were seen off by North Korean Ambassador Ji Jae-ryong at the airport.
“China attached high importance to the cultural exchanges with the DPRK, and was ready to continue to work with it to promote the bilateral exchanges and cooperation in culture and all other areas”, it said, using the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The reclusive North is also unlikely to conduct a nuclear test in 2016, raising the possibility of a breakthrough in efforts to resume the six-way talks, according to the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU).
A highly-anticipated appearance in Beijing by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s favorite girl band was abruptly cancelled Saturday, hours before the group was set to perform and with no official explanation given.
The reason for the band’s sudden departure was not clear, nor was it obvious what it meant for relations between China and North Korea, though the abrupt change in plans was nearly certainly a negative development.
Whatever the real reason for the cancellation of the tour. the band’s first overseas tour had been greeted with some excitement in China, an important market for South Korea’s K-pop. Some had billed Moranbong’s visit as a sign of improving ties, possibly leading up to Mr Kim’s first state visit to China since he took power in 2011.
Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju applaud the Moranbong band in Pyongyang.
However, there is speculation that the band, which is very popular in North Korea (although admittedly, there is not much choice given the authoritarian regime’s strict control) had been called back home after Kim Jong-un heard that Chinese President Xi Jinping would not be attending the concert.
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North Korea has built a cult of personality around the Kim dynasty, which has ruled for three generations.
