Kim’s all-girl band perform vanishing act

The mysterious cancellation of a Beijing concert by North Korea’s Moranbong Band on Saturday appears to be linked with the girl group’s program, which included adulations of leader Kim Jong-un and possibly boasts about the country’s nuclear tests, which China’s government was against.

The Koreans’ abrupt departures might have been related to South Korean reports about a past relationship between the married Kim and a female member of the band, which was also reported on Chinese social media.

Updated Dec. 12 at 11:12EST: The first overseas performance of North Korea’s Moranbong Band was cancelled just hours before their show in Beijing today, Dec. 12.

The Moranbong band’s shows at China’s National Center for the Performing Arts have been cancelled “due to some reasons”, an employee at the venue told China Real Time Saturday night.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency speculated Pyongyang had pulled the plug because China had downgraded the ranking of its delegation in protest over Kim Jong-un’s recent suggestion that the North possesses a hydrogen bomb.

North Korea’s national choir, which was expected to perform with Moranbong, also left Beijing mid-rehearsals. The band had been in Beijing for only two days, after arriving by train from Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.

China is North Korea’s main economic and diplomatic backer, but has become increasingly frustrated at Pyongyang’s sabre rattling over its nuclear weapons programme.

The Moranbong Band, which consists of about 20 musicians said to be handpicked by Kim Jong, plays a mixture of Western and traditional Korean tunes.

The concert in Beijing was billed as a “friendship performance” by North Korea’s state-run KCNA agency, which praised the “worldwide stylish band” as “the first standard-bearer on the ideological and cultural front”.

The staffer, one of the lighting crew, reportedly pointed out that Kim is being referred to the International Criminal Court for human rights abuses, and suggested North Korea should learn from China if it wants to prosper.

Previous efforts to establish a regular dialogue have often quickly faltered after an initial meeting – a reflection of the deep mistrust between two countries that have remained technically at war since their conflict six decades ago.

The North Korean band’s arrival in China on Thursday generated great interest among Chinese Internet users.