North Korea to face the music after cancelling Moranbong shows

Fueling speculation about the cause of the sudden cancellation of a much-anticipated performance by the Moranbong Band in Beijing, Chinese authorities started censoring posts on portal sites and social networking services related to the North Korean girl band. Their scheduled performance at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing would have been their first overseas show.

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.

In the absence of any further explanation, analysts quickly began speculating about a possible renewed strain on Beijing-Pyongyang relations.

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.

Band members arrived at Beijing’s airport in North Korean Embassy vehicles on Saturday afternoon, and departed aboard a North Korean Air Koryo jet shortly after 4 p.m. following a lengthy delay, Chinese news website sina.com reported. “But North Korea eventually called off the performance”, a source told Yonhap.

A dispatch by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency later cited “communication issues at the working level” as the reason for the cancellation.

China had been originally scheduled to send one of its 25 highest-ranking leaders in the Chinese Communist Party to the Saturday concert but chose to send vice minister-level officials after Kim’s hint of developing a hydrogen bomb.

The incident is important because it shows the volatile nature of North Korea’s diplomacy, he said. Kim had downgraded ties after he executed his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who handled Pyongyang’s dealings with Beijing.

They exist in their own league, really, having each been hand-picked by North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un.

When spotted by press members in China, Hyon supposedly also refused to reveal what exactly she and her band would be performing during the three day tour, but we hope it includes her North Korean pop cultural hit, “Excellent Horse-like Lady”. On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry, in a terse comment from spokesman Hong Lei, reaffirmed Beijing’s cultural ties with North Korea.

China is North Korea’s main economic and diplomatic backer, but was infuriated in 2013 when Kim ordered the country’s third nuclear test. Several subsequent rounds of saber rattling by North Korea toward South Korea and the United States have also tested China’s patience.