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North Korean Pop Group Visits Beijing on Soft-Power Mission
North Korean Pop Group Visits Beijing on Soft-Power Mission
(about 2 hours later)
BEIJING — Onstage, the two dozen or so North Korean women wear tightfitting dresses, short skirts and high heels that show off their slender legs and swaying hips as they belt out pop tunes.
BEIJING — Pop groups do not usually entertain audiences with songs like “Our Dear Leader!” and “Do Prosper, Era of the Workers’ Party.”
They are the Moranbong Band, and they are the latest (and maybe the only) soft-power export from North Korea. They are the favorite group of Kim Jong-un, the nation’s young authoritarian leader — some reports say he handpicked each member — and now he has dispatched them to Beijing at a time when China and North Korea are trying to improve their relations. The band is scheduled to put on three performances, its first overseas.
Yet those may be among the ditties that North Korea’s Moranbong Band — two dozen or so slender young women in form-fitting outfits and high heels — perform in Beijing on Saturday night, in their first overseas appearance.
The young women boarded a train in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and stopped in the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong on Wednesday before arriving the next day in Beijing, at the end of the capital’s red alert over soaring air pollution. Paparazzi photographs posted online showed band members being whisked through the streets on a bus, dressed in old-school socialist fashion — furry hats with a red star and long olive military-style winter coats.
Moranbong Band is the latest (and maybe the only) soft-power export from North Korea. It is the favorite group of Kim Jong-un, the nation’s young authoritarian leader — and some reports say he handpicked each member. Mr. Kim’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, who once sang in a band herself, is believed to be a patron.
But they are expected to don clothes with more sex appeal when they whip out their keyboards, electric guitars and violins to perform over three nights, starting Saturday, at the National Center for the Performing Arts, the egg-shaped concert hall west of Tiananmen Square and south of Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party leadership compound. A North Korean state choral group is also on the program.
Moranbong has been dispatched to Beijing at a time when China and North Korea are trying to improve relations amid differences about the North’s nuclear ambitions and other economic and political matters.
On Wednesday, the young women boarded a train in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. They arrived the next day in Beijing, just at the end of the capital’s red alert over soaring air pollution.
Paparazzi photographs posted online showed band members being whisked through the streets on a bus, dressed in old-school socialist fashion: furry hats with a red star and long olive military-style winter coats.
But the women are expected to don much sexier outfits — out of the ordinary for North Korean women, who tend to dress modestly — when they appear over three nights at the National Center for the Performing Arts, the egg-shaped concert hall west of Tiananmen Square. A North Korean state choral group is also on the program.
All three concerts are invitation-only events. Party officials are expected to attend, and some state work groups and ministry employees have been offered free tickets.
All three concerts are invitation-only events. Party officials are expected to attend, and some state work groups and ministry employees have been offered free tickets.
“The visit by the band shows there is good will on the part of North Korea,” said Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor of international relations at Renmin University who studies North Korea. “However, we must not overly interpret the political significance of the performance. 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.”
“The visit by the band shows there is good will on the part of North Korea,” said Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor of international relations at Renmin University who studies North Korea. “However, we must not overly interpret the political significance of the performance.”
“Whether this will eventually lead to a visit to China by Kim Jong-un still remains to be seen,” he added, referring to the fact that the young leader has yet to visit China, the country’s main ally. “Ultimately, it all depends on what ‘gifts’ North Korea will present to China. Just a single performance is not enough.”
The band is named after a hill in Pyongyang steeped in revolutionary history. In the 1940s, Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of the current leader, is said to have given a speech there after returning from exile in the Soviet Union.
The band is named after a hill in Pyongyang steeped in revolutionary history. In the 1940s, Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of the young Mr. Kim, is said to have given a speech there after returning from exile in the Soviet Union.
The women have performed at military barracks and for officials of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea in concert halls in Pyongyang. In addition to pop versions of patriotic songs, the band has also mastered instrumental covers of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and the theme from “Rocky.”
The women perform at military barracks and for officials of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea in concert halls in Pyongyang. They do pop versions of patriotic songs like “Our Dear Leader!” and “Do Prosper, Era of the Workers’ Party.” But they have also mastered instrumental covers of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and the theme from “Rocky,” the iconic American film starring Sylvester Stallone. The band has also performed Chinese Communist songs.
The group made its debut in 2012 and was seen as the North Korean answer to the famous K-pop girl bands of South Korea. The state-run Korean Central News Agency gave an appraisal of the homegrown sensation: “Just 10-odd musicians presented such sublime, rich and thrilling melodies as those of a grand orchestra with refined rendition while young singers sang songs in an emotional and cheerful manner.”
The group made its debut in 2012 and was seen as the North Korean answer to the famous K-pop girl bands of South Korea. The state-run Korean Central News Agency gave an appraisal of the homegrown sensation: “Just 10 odd musicians presented such sublime, rich and thrilling melodies as those of a grand orchestra with refined rendition while young singers sang songs in an emotional and cheerful manner.”
In Moranbong’s official debut concert, held that July and attended by Mr. Kim and his wife, people dressed as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Winnie the Pooh appeared onstage as the musicians played instrumental covers of Disney songs. (Disney was not amused.) North Korea watchers quickly seized on the evening as a sign that Mr. Kim, then newly in power, might open up to Western culture and pursue economic, if not political, change. That has not turned out to be the case.
In Moranbong’s official debut concert, held that July and attended by Mr. Kim and his wife, people dressed as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Winnie the Pooh appeared onstage as the musicians played instrumental covers of Disney songs. Clips from Disney movies appeared on a screen. North Korea watchers quickly seized on that as a sign that Mr. Kim, then newly in power, might open up to Western culture and ardently pursue economic, if not political, reforms. That has not turned out to be the case. (In any event, the Walt Disney Company said it had not given approval for the characters to appear in the concert, and the United States government chided North Korea for copyright violation.)
In 2013, rumors circulated in South Korea that one band member, Hyon Song-wol, had been executed, along with about a dozen other North Korean performers. But she resurfaced in a television broadcast in 2014 in which she saluted Mr. Kim for his “heavenly trust and warm care in promoting the arts.”
In 2013, rumors circulated in South Korea that one band member, Hyon Song-wol, had been executed, along with about a dozen other North Korean performers, under orders from Mr. Kim, supposedly for having recorded themselves performing sex acts and then trying to sell the videos. But she resurfaced in a television broadcast in 2014 in which she saluted Mr. Kim for his “heavenly trust and warm care in promoting the arts.”
Asked this week at a regularly scheduled news conference in Beijing about the band, Hua Chunying, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said, “The good-will visit and performance of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea art groups in China are not within the remit of the Foreign Ministry.”
Mr. Kim’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, once sang in a band herself, and she is believed to be a patron of Moranbong.
In China, some people have mocked Moranbong as an “imperial harem” for Mr. Kim. Online, one person, writing under the name Tianping Kuihua, said 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.”
Referring to China’s decidedly senior status in the relationship, the person added, “He is playing his boss as a monkey!”
Su Hao, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University who researches Asian politics and economics, noted that the two countries have serious differences, “primarily the nuclear issue and North Korea’s economic and political reforms.”
“China wants North Korea to be more open,” he said. “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.”
Asked this week at a regularly scheduled news conference in Beijing about the band, Hua Chunying, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said: “The good-will visit and performance of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea art groups in China are not within the remit of the Foreign Ministry. I have no information about their itinerary.”
But she added, “We always believe that state-to-state exchanges and cooperation in various forms will help increase mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples.”
But she added, “We always believe that state-to-state exchanges and cooperation in various forms will help increase mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples.”
