Pyongyang (restaurant chain)

Locations

Most Pyongyang restaurants are found near the North Korean border in China, as well as in Beijing and Shanghai. Since the 2000s, the chain has been expanding into South and Southeast Asian cities including Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, Vientiane, Dhaka, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur. There are also restaurants in Ulaanbaatar, Vladivostok, Moscow, Dubai, and Kathmandu. The restaurants initially catered to the many South Korean businessmen in Southeast Asia, and have now become popular with curious tourists.

The first Western outpost of the restaurant chain was opened in Amsterdam in 2012, in the residential neighbourhood of Osdorp, along with Dutch co-owners. The menu and policies of this restaurant differed from its Asian counterparts. However, in September 2012, amid mutual accusations between the Korean staff and the Dutch partner, the restaurant closed. It reopened in December 2013 under the name Haedanghwa in a new location, but closed a year later.

The restaurant's locations in Bangkok were temporarily shut down, but were re-opened again in 2015. Similarly, their branches in Pattaya were closed down. The branch in Ho Chi Minh City closed down in 2017 and the branch in Hanoi shut down in 2020.

It was reported that a new branch was set to open in Scotland, in line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's interest in the country after its 2014 independence referendum, although this has been denied by North Korean officials. According to Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper there are some 100 North Korean restaurants in China alone.

Service

The restaurants serve Korean food, including kimchi dishes, Pyongyang cold noodles, barbecued cuttlefish and dog meat soup. Patrons may also buy North Korean products such as ginseng wine and an unlabelled aphrodisiac claimed to be made from bears. The prices are relatively high and in US dollars.

The staff consists of young Korean women in traditional Chosŏn-ot dress, who also perform karaoke as well as song and dance routines in the style of the North Korean Mass Games for the customers. Staff from North Korea typically work on three-year contracts, and are often highly trained graduates of arts colleges. Photography is generally not permitted inside.

Operation

According to Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner, the restaurants are one of several overseas business ventures of Room 39, a North Korean government organization dedicated to acquiring and laundering foreign currency for the North Korean leadership.

North Korean defectors have reported that the restaurants are run by local middlemen, who are required to send money every year to the North Korean government. The North Korean staff, who live on the restaurant premises, In 2016, Chinese authorities announced that 13 restaurant workers had defected from Pyongyang restaurants in China to South Korea.

References

References

1. (13 April 2016). "North Korea Threatens South Korea over 13 Defectors". [[The New York Times]].
2. Taylor, Adam. (April 8, 2016). "The weird world of North Korea's restaurants abroad". The Washington Post.
3. "DPRK Restaurant in Amsterdam Reopened Under New Ownership".
4. Ed Butler. (7 June 2014). "Mort Pour La France".
5. (4 June 2018). "The bizarre experience of dining at an illegal North Korean restaurant".
6. "Dining with Dear Leader in Dhaka". New Indian Express.
7. Tash Roslin. (May 6, 2010). "North Korea's Hidden Menu". Jakarta Globe.
8. Strangio, Sebastian. (22 March 2010). "Kingdom Kim's Culinary Outposts: Inside the bizarre world of Asia's North Korean restaurant chain.". [[Slate (magazine).
9. "Pyongyang Restaurants Extending Reach in Southeast Asian Cities (public domain text as cited)". Voice of America, Khmer-English.
10. "Pyongyang Restaurant".
11. (September 5, 2012). "Noord-Koreaans restaurant al weer dicht". AT5 Nieuws.
12. link. (2019-12-06)
13. 황, 석주. (2020-06-12). "Closed N.K. restaurant in Hanoi".
14. (2020-04-20). "North Korean workers stuck in Vietnam following COVID-19 border closures: Hanoi".
15. (11 January 2015). "Kim Jong-un 'set to open a new restaurant in SCOTLAND'".
16. "North Korea denies reports Kim Jong-un is to open state-backed restaurant in Scotland". The Independent.
17. Kim, Min Se. (19 June 2007). "North Korean Restaurants in China Send $10,000–30,000 Annually Back to Its Native Country". [[Daily NK]].
18. Kwon, Jeong Hyun. (21 March 2007). "North Korean Restaurant in China Shuts Down as Receptionist Escapes". [[Daily NK]].
19. Kim, Yong Hun. (15 December 2006). "Waitresses Flee North Korean Restaurants in Qingdao China". [[Daily NK]].
20. (8 April 2016). "North Korean staff at restaurant in third country defect to South".
21. (12 April 2016). "North Korean restaurant defectors 'were in China and left legally'". [[BBC News]].