BEIJING — The North Korean all-female band formed by leader Kim Jong-un abruptly headed back to Pyongyang on Saturday without performing what would have been its first concert abroad in the heart of Beijing.
The concerts scheduled for three days through Monday by members of the Moranbong Band and the North's State Merited Chorus were widely seen as the latest sign of warming relations between the two traditional allies.
Members of the band, who left their hotel around noon, were wearing heavy military coats when they arrived at Beijing's international airport to prepare for their unexplained departure.
They were seen off by North Korean Ambassador Ji Jae-ryong at the airport. Band members and the envoy did not respond to questions from reporters.
It is not immediately known why the band had to leave Beijing. Some North Korea watchers in Beijing say there might have been some problems with China over arrangements for the concerts, and that North Korea might have been offended by a lack of senior Chinese officials planning to come to the events.
There is also speculation that North Korea was offended by some recent Chinese media reports about the band's leader, Hyon Song Wol, including one that she is a former girlfriend of Kim.
The band and the chorus, who arrived in the Chinese capital on Thursday by train from Pyongyang, were scheduled to take the stage of the biggest music hall at the National Center for the Performing Arts, located near Tiananmen Square.
The centre later in the day announced the cancellation of all three joint concerts by the band and chorus. The chorus is also likely to head back to Pyongyang soon.
Their shows were invitation-only and not open to the public, with most spectators expected to be those who have close links to the Chinese Communist Party, which has welcomed the North Korean delegation of more than 100 artists.
Diplomats and experts were closely watching to see if those attending the performances would include any top Chinese political figures.
The premiere foreign performance of the band was suddenly announced by North Korea earlier this week at a time when bilateral ties have stabilised somewhat after China sent Liu Yunshan, the Communist Party's fifth-ranked leader, to Pyongyang in October as its representative in events marking the 70th anniversary of North Korea's ruling party.
Liu was most senior official to have visited Pyongyang since Kim took power following the death of his father in late 2011.
China is North Korea's only major ally and its economic lifeline, but their relations were not as strong as they used to be, especially after Pyongyang's third nuclear test in February 2013 in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
Since becoming China's president in March 2013, Xi Jinping has never met with Kim.
The Moranbong Band, consisting of around 20 members — singers, a drummer and others playing instruments such as synthesisers and electronic violins — has been a sensation at home.
The singers and the musicians, sometimes wearing skirts cut well above the knee, are known for fancy dance steps and their performances have been considered modern and seductive by North Korean standards.
They are a regular fixture on North Korean TV screens and Kim has also attended its concerts many times.
The group's repertoire in one early performance even included the theme song from Rocky and Frank Sinatra's My Way.
Nonetheless, they mostly play numbers explicitly or implicitly praising Kim's regime and the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.