[Courtesy of Xinhua News Network]
North Korea's all-female premier pop group has abruptly cancelled a scheduled Beijing concert and headed home, triggering speculation over what caused the last-minute cancellation of the highly anticipated performance by the group reportedly formed by North Korea’s young leader Kim Jung Un.
The Moranbong Band was visiting China along with North Korea's State Merited Chorus and had been due to perform at Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts on Saturday.
China's official Xinhua news agency said the performance could not be staged as scheduled due to "communication issues at the working level".
The group arrived in Beijing last Thursday and was expected to stay until Tuesday on what the North Korean official news agency KCNA described as a “friendship visit” to China.
On Sunday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the North Koreans may have cancelled the show after China decided to send a lower ranking delegation in protest over Kim's apparent claim last week that the North possesses a hydrogen bomb
The Yonhap report cited an unnamed source quoting an unnamed Chinese government official as saying the North had initially requested an audience that included President Xi Jinping or Premier Li Keqiang. China agreed instead to send a politburo member, but then decided to send lower-ranking officials
The Moranbong band, whose members were reportedly handpicked by Kim, was formed in 2012. The short haircuts of the group's young women members are trend-setting in the capital, Pyongyang.
China’s state-run media had lit up with news reports on the group’s visit, with the official Xinhua News Agency publishing a slideshow showing the women arriving in Beijing dressed in military-style frocks and fur hats.The visit was to have been the group’s first overseas tour.
China has long been North Korea’s economic and diplomatic lifeline. Yet the traditional alliance between the two has come under strain in recent years, particularly after Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test in 2013.
Last Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to say his country has developed a hydrogen bomb, a step up from the less powerful atomic bomb.
But the White House said it was doubtful that North Korea had developed a hydrogen bomb, as Kim had apparently claimed.
By Alex Lee
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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