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Very, very sad news for Chinese music fans:
North Korean Band Abruptly Leaves China, Its Concerts Canceled
By EDWARD WONG
DEC. 12, 2015
BEIJING — The favorite pop band of North Korea’s young leader abruptly boarded a flight to return home from Beijing on Saturday, just hours before an important concert. The concert would have been the band’s first one overseas and the first of three in the Chinese capital that were intended to improve relations between the nations.
The group, Moranbong Band, has about 20 members, all slim young women who wear tight dresses and high heels on stage while performing both Western pop songs and North Korean revolutionary standards. They are a contrast to the staid image of the brand of authoritarian socialism that has existed for decades in North Korea, under rule by three generations of the same family. Some reports have said the band’s members were handpicked by Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, whose wife is a former singer from another band.
The sudden departure of the band appeared to highlight the mercurial and secretive nature of Mr. Kim and the North Korean government. It also raised questions about the state of relations between China and North Korea, which have had rocky periods since Mr. Kim took power in late 2011.
News of the band’s departure first emerged Saturday afternoon on Chinese websites, which posted photographs taken in the afternoon of the women walking through the Beijing Capital International Airport on the way to a departing flight. They were dressed in long olive military-style winter jackets. Some held bags or travel cases. A news article on Sina.com, a Chinese website, that had photos of the women in the airport was soon deleted.
Around 3 p.m., employees at the Culture Ministry who had been given free tickets for the concerts were sent a message over the WeChat app saying that the concerts had been canceled.
That message did not say why they had been canceled, nor did an online notice of apology to audience members posted by the performance site, the National Center for the Performing Arts. Performances by a state choral group from North Korea that were on the same program were also canceled. Moranbong Band had held rehearsals on Friday at the concert hall.
The hall had not sold tickets to the public. The concerts were invitation only. Chinese Communist Party and government officials had been expected to attend, as well as employees of some ministries.
The reason for the band’s sudden departure was not clear, nor was it obvious what it meant for relations between China and North Korea, though the abrupt change in plans was almost certainly a negative development. The band had been in Beijing for only two days, after arriving by train from Pyongyang, the North’s capital.
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.”
“China wants North Korea to be more open,” Mr. Su added. “But we haven’t seen any such posture on the part of the North Korean leadership. So it’s hard to get the two sides on the same page. That said, North Korea is keen to show its good will, so it’s showing its posture by sending its most important band.”
Another scholar, Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor of international relations at Renmin University, said Friday that people should not read too much into Mr. Kim’s decision to send the band to Beijing.
“After all, key issues such as nuclear and economic cooperation need to be worked out with leaders from the two countries sitting down together, without which all this will amount to next to nothing,” Mr. Cheng said. “Whether this will eventually lead to a visit to China by Kim Jong-un still remains to be seen. Ultimately, it all depends on what ‘gifts’ North Korea will present to China. Just a single performance is not enough.”
Mr. Kim has not visited China, his closest ally, since taking power in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il. In recent years, Chinese officials have viewed Mr. Kim and his colleagues as temperamental and unpredictable, and President Xi Jinping of China had begun distancing himself from Mr. Kim.
In September, Mr. Kim did not attend a huge military parade in Beijing hosted by Mr. Xi that celebrated the defeat of Japan in World War II. Instead, President Park Geun-hye of South Korea was an honored guest, standing near Mr. Xi and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on the rostrum at Tiananmen Square. The two Koreas are officially still at war; the Korean War ended with a truce in 1953 and not a peace treaty.
In October, Mr. Xi sent Liu Yunshan, a top Communist Party official, to a military parade in North Korea, a move that some analysts interpreted as an effort by Mr. Xi to mend fences with Mr. Kim.
The North Korean band’s arrival in China on Thursday generated great interest among Chinese Internet users. Some welcomed the visit, while others were skeptical. One person writing under the name Tianping Kuihua said sarcastically that Mr. Kim had a knack for strategy: “One moment he is sending his imperial harems and beauties to attract the attention of the Chinese people, and another moment he is announcing he has a hydrogen bomb. He is playing his boss like a monkey!”
The band’s embrace of Western pop culture and the sexy attire of the members led some North Korea analysts to proclaim in 2012 that Mr. Kim, who had just taken power, would adopt a more liberal economic model and quickly open up the country. While there have been some signs of more market-oriented economic experiments, policy change has not been as rapid as some had hoped for.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/world/asia/north-korea-moranbong-band-leaves-beijng.html
North Korean Band Abruptly Leaves China, Its Concerts Canceled
By EDWARD WONG
DEC. 12, 2015
BEIJING — The favorite pop band of North Korea’s young leader abruptly boarded a flight to return home from Beijing on Saturday, just hours before an important concert. The concert would have been the band’s first one overseas and the first of three in the Chinese capital that were intended to improve relations between the nations.
The group, Moranbong Band, has about 20 members, all slim young women who wear tight dresses and high heels on stage while performing both Western pop songs and North Korean revolutionary standards. They are a contrast to the staid image of the brand of authoritarian socialism that has existed for decades in North Korea, under rule by three generations of the same family. Some reports have said the band’s members were handpicked by Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, whose wife is a former singer from another band.
The sudden departure of the band appeared to highlight the mercurial and secretive nature of Mr. Kim and the North Korean government. It also raised questions about the state of relations between China and North Korea, which have had rocky periods since Mr. Kim took power in late 2011.
News of the band’s departure first emerged Saturday afternoon on Chinese websites, which posted photographs taken in the afternoon of the women walking through the Beijing Capital International Airport on the way to a departing flight. They were dressed in long olive military-style winter jackets. Some held bags or travel cases. A news article on Sina.com, a Chinese website, that had photos of the women in the airport was soon deleted.
Around 3 p.m., employees at the Culture Ministry who had been given free tickets for the concerts were sent a message over the WeChat app saying that the concerts had been canceled.
That message did not say why they had been canceled, nor did an online notice of apology to audience members posted by the performance site, the National Center for the Performing Arts. Performances by a state choral group from North Korea that were on the same program were also canceled. Moranbong Band had held rehearsals on Friday at the concert hall.
The hall had not sold tickets to the public. The concerts were invitation only. Chinese Communist Party and government officials had been expected to attend, as well as employees of some ministries.
The reason for the band’s sudden departure was not clear, nor was it obvious what it meant for relations between China and North Korea, though the abrupt change in plans was almost certainly a negative development. The band had been in Beijing for only two days, after arriving by train from Pyongyang, the North’s capital.
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.”
“China wants North Korea to be more open,” Mr. Su added. “But we haven’t seen any such posture on the part of the North Korean leadership. So it’s hard to get the two sides on the same page. That said, North Korea is keen to show its good will, so it’s showing its posture by sending its most important band.”
Another scholar, Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor of international relations at Renmin University, said Friday that people should not read too much into Mr. Kim’s decision to send the band to Beijing.
“After all, key issues such as nuclear and economic cooperation need to be worked out with leaders from the two countries sitting down together, without which all this will amount to next to nothing,” Mr. Cheng said. “Whether this will eventually lead to a visit to China by Kim Jong-un still remains to be seen. Ultimately, it all depends on what ‘gifts’ North Korea will present to China. Just a single performance is not enough.”
Mr. Kim has not visited China, his closest ally, since taking power in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il. In recent years, Chinese officials have viewed Mr. Kim and his colleagues as temperamental and unpredictable, and President Xi Jinping of China had begun distancing himself from Mr. Kim.
In September, Mr. Kim did not attend a huge military parade in Beijing hosted by Mr. Xi that celebrated the defeat of Japan in World War II. Instead, President Park Geun-hye of South Korea was an honored guest, standing near Mr. Xi and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on the rostrum at Tiananmen Square. The two Koreas are officially still at war; the Korean War ended with a truce in 1953 and not a peace treaty.
In October, Mr. Xi sent Liu Yunshan, a top Communist Party official, to a military parade in North Korea, a move that some analysts interpreted as an effort by Mr. Xi to mend fences with Mr. Kim.
The North Korean band’s arrival in China on Thursday generated great interest among Chinese Internet users. Some welcomed the visit, while others were skeptical. One person writing under the name Tianping Kuihua said sarcastically that Mr. Kim had a knack for strategy: “One moment he is sending his imperial harems and beauties to attract the attention of the Chinese people, and another moment he is announcing he has a hydrogen bomb. He is playing his boss like a monkey!”
The band’s embrace of Western pop culture and the sexy attire of the members led some North Korea analysts to proclaim in 2012 that Mr. Kim, who had just taken power, would adopt a more liberal economic model and quickly open up the country. While there have been some signs of more market-oriented economic experiments, policy change has not been as rapid as some had hoped for.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/world/asia/north-korea-moranbong-band-leaves-beijng.html
