Kim Jong-un ‘ordered girl group home over Chinese snub’

Moranbong were visiting China along with the State Merited Chorus and were all set to perform at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts on Saturday, with state media showing the women leaving their hotel.

Xinhua said the performance was cancelled because of “communication issues at the working level”.

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.

The Moranbong Band leaving the National Center of Performance Arts in Beijing before getting on a plane.

In October, the Chinese censors started blocking posts on Weibo ridiculing the infamously thin-skinned North Korean leader. The band withdrew hours before the invitation-only concert began, returning to Pyongyang via Air Koryo.

Kim Heung-kyu at Ajou University said, “If senior Chinese officials had been seen applauding Kim Jong-un’s favorite band, it could have looked as if they support his nuclear weapons program”.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed Chinese official as saying that Pyongyang had initially sought President Xi Jinping or Premier Li Keqiang’s attendance.

The report also said that Kim’s recent claim that the North is capable of producing hydrogen bombs also affected China’s decision.

The ensemble, whose members were reportedly handpicked by Kim, was formed in 2012 and their show in China was to be their first overseas appearance.

In turn, Chinese officials may have felt that Kim chose a bad moment to shoot off his mouth just as they were rolling out the red carpet for a group of North Korean cultural quasi-ambassadors.

Prior to the trip, North Korean state news outlet Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) promoted the shows as “friendship performances”.

North Korea has built a cult of personality around the Kim family, which has ruled for three generations, and sees any outside criticism or mockery of its leader as an attack on its sovereignty.

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