Kim Jong-un’s Moranbong Band cancels Beijing show

Official Chinese media are neither confirming nor denying grounds for the concerts’ cancellation, with state-run Xinhua News modestly describing the whole kerfuffle as “communication issues at the working level”.

The cancellation of a propaganda extravaganza to mark relations between two countries famously “as close as lips and teeth” caused widespread speculation about what happened.

Coming a few months after North Korea and China exchanged high-level visits – KWP Secretary Choe Ryong-hae visited Beijing for a military parade in September, while Chinese Politburo Standing Committee member Liu Yunshan went to Pyongyang for the 70th anniversary of the KWP’s founding – the musical performances were seen as a goodwill tour to cement gains in China-North Korea ties.

On Saturday, North Korea pulled out of cross-border talks after South Korea said it refused the country’s demand to resume a tourism project that once provided Pyongyang with tens of millions of dollars each year. China is “willing along with North Korea to keeping pushing cooperation forward on all levels, including cultural exchanges”, Hong said.

“Performances by North Korean groups are never just cultural activities”.

The news proved to be far too insulting for Mr Kim, who ordered the immediate return of the Moranbong Band.

According to the report, China initially said yes to the concert, assuming the event would be a simple performance.

They are the flower of North Korean womanhood: pop superstars, moral exemplars and cultural ambassadors rolled into one.

A staff member at the National Theatre, where the band was to give its first performances, reportedly said the concerts had been cancelled but did not give a reason.

The band’s tour had been viewed as a sign of improving ties between the North and its old ally China – onlookers were awaiting clearer implications of Saturday’s cancelation.

For North Korea watchers it is a reminder that engaging with the isolated, secretive authoritarian regime, even on seemingly non-political issues, can be painfully hard.

Earlier in the day, the agency quoted leader Kim Jong-un as saying during an inspection of a catfish farm that the modernization of farms can be done by October 10 next year, when the congress will take place.

The “worldwide stylish band”, in the words of KCNA, had travelled to Beijing at an opportune time: the UN Security Council, of which China is a veto-wielding permanent member, is slated to address allegations of North Korea’s human rights abuses.

The Global Times, an influential Chinese tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, in an editorial on Monday called what happened a “glitch” that would not affect China’s ties with North Korea, though admitted the cancellation was “a bit odd”.