China in damage control after Kim pulls out all woman band

Some Chinese internet users suggested the band’s cancellation is linked to North Korea’s announcement that it had developed a hydrogen bomb.

It was not immediately known why the North Korean band returned home hours before the performances, which are not open to the public and an invitation-only, were to begin.

Other reports said that Pyongyang was offended by unflattering media coverage of the Moranbong Band.

China’s official Xinhua news agency said the performance could not be staged due to “communication issues at the working level”.

China’s diplomacy with its key ally North Korea displayed uncertainty after the sudden cancellation of the concerts in Beijing by an all-female band formed by the North’s leader Kim Jong-un, multiple diplomatic sources and analysts said.

North Korea held a conference of its financial and banking officials for the first time since 1990, hinting at leader Kim Jong-un’s plans to reform the state-controlled economy, the media reported on Monday.

News reports speculated that Pyongyang was dissatisfied that China had made a decision to send a low-ranking official to the Moranbong concert instead of a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau, the Chinese government’s top leadership body.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said that if the cancellation is related to news stories about the band’s leader, “There might have been prior consent between the two sides”.

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.

The Moranbong Band was visiting China with North Korea’s State Merited Chorus and due to perform at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts on Saturday.

Since Liu Yunshan, the Chinese Communist Party’s fifth-ranked official, visited Pyongyang in October and held talks with North Korean leader Kim, there have been signs of improvement in bilateral ties.

Even the day before the concert was canceled, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters that Beijing hopes to deepen mutual understanding and friendship with Pyongyang throughout the North Korean band’s performances.

“This is a diplomatic discourtesy”, said a 50-year-old invitee.