North Korea’s girl band cancels Beijing shows

The show was due to be their first overseas appearance.

The performance “cannot be staged as scheduled because of communication problems at the working level”, China’s Xinhua news agency reported, citing “applicable departments”.

The Moranbong Band – a pop sensation in North Korea – was escorted to Beijing’s airport in North Korean embassy vehicles Saturday afternoon. Short skirts & synthesizers Political reversal? And the performers were ready to take their matching outfits and pitch-perfect voices on the road to neighboring China – until North Korea abruptly canceled the tour. An accompanying North Korean musical troupe, the State Merited Chorus, also canceled its performances.

As to whether this mishap will strain North Korea and China’s relationship, The Global Times, a publication by the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily, said, “Given the strategic relationship between the two, the atmosphere surrounding the show might have a short-term impact, but will not affect the basis of their strategic relations”.

On Friday, Su Hao, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University who researches Asian politics and economics, said in an interview that “there are some issues on which the two sides still can’t get on the same page, primarily the nuclear issue and North Korea’s economic and political reforms”.

The band, known for its interpretive performances of the totalitarian state’s propaganda songs and Western pop music, including the “Theme from Rocky”, was formed in 2012 following an order by North Korea’s young leader Kim.

There is also speculation that North Korea was offended by some recent Chinese media reports about the band’s leader, Hyon Song Wol, including one that she is a former girlfriend of Kim.

At negotiations in Kaesong, South Korea sought to regularize inter-Korean family reunions while North Korea sought the re-opening of inter-Korean tourism at Mount Kumgang.

They mystery surrounding the hurried departure of Kim Jong-Un’s girl group from China may have been solved. “Our army will have to pay attention to North Korea’s strategic and tactical provocations”.

The Moranbong Band were due to perform at a series of invitation-only concerts on Saturday in Beijing when they were suddenly cancelled.

Liu was most senior official to have visited Pyongyang since Kim took power following the death of his father in late 2011.

The 20-strong group halted a visit to China, hours before concerts which had appeared to represent a warming of relations between Pyongyang and Beijing. Some Chinese internet users suggested the band’s cancellation is linked to North Korea’s announcement that it had developed a hydrogen bomb.