Pyongyang (chain of restaurants)

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Pyongyang restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Pyongyang is a restaurant chain named after the North Korean capital Pyongyang with around 130 locations worldwide. The restaurants are owned and operated by the Haedanghwa Group . The company is allegedly a front company of the Office 39 organization , which serves to finance the North Korean regime.

Locations

Most of the Pyongyang branches are located in the People's Republic of China near the border with North Korea, as well as in Beijing and Shanghai . Since the 2000s, the chain has been expanding into Southeast Asian cities such as Bangkok , 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 were originally geared towards the many South Korean business people in Southeast Asia and are now popular with curious tourists.

The first branch of the restaurant chain in the west opened its doors in 2012 in Amsterdam in the Osdorp district ; it was a cooperation with Dutch co-owners. This restaurant's menu and business strategy differed from its Asian counterparts in that it did not offer dog meat or ginseng wine . In September 2012, the restaurant shut down due to mutual accusations between the Korean employees and the Dutch partner. In December 2013 it was reopened at a new location under the name Haedanghwa , but closed for good a year later.

In January 2015 there were media reports that another branch was to be opened in Scotland , commensurate with the interest of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in the country after the 2014 independence referendum . North Korean officials denied this, however. According to the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shinbun , there were around 100 North Korean restaurants in China alone in 2016.

offer

Musical performance by North Koreans in the Pyongyang restaurant in Phnom Penh

The restaurants serve Korean dishes , including kimchi , cold noodles , grilled squid, and dog meat soup . Guests can also purchase North Korean products like ginseng wine and an unlabeled aphrodisiac that is said to be made from parts of the body of bears . The prices are relatively high.

The staff consists of young North Korean women in traditional Chosŏnot clothing, who also sing karaoke and perform song and dance performances in the style of the North Korean mass events for customers . Employees from North Korea usually work on three-year contracts and are often well-trained graduates from art schools. Photography is generally not allowed.

business

According to the Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner , the restaurants or the Haedanghwa Group are one of several overseas operations of Office 39 , a North Korean government organization dedicated to the procurement and money laundering of foreign currencies for the North Korean leadership. In particular, this is intended to circumvent various UN resolutions that have been imposed on the country.

North Korean defectors report that the restaurants are run by local middlemen who have to send a certain amount of money (typically $ 10,000 to $ 30,000) to the North Korean government each year. The North Korean staff who live in the restaurant building are allegedly being thoroughly checked for political loyalty and closely monitored by North Korean security officers on site. In the 2000s, a series of escape attempts by waitresses in China resulted in the closure of several restaurants and the repatriation of staff , according to Daily NK . In April 2016, South Korea announced that 13 employees at a Pyongyang branch had defected from China.

Web links

Commons : Pyongyang  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Choe Sang-hun: North Korea Threatens South Korea Over 13 Defectors. The New York Times , April 12, 2016, accessed March 16, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b DPRK Restaurant in Amsterdam Reopened Under New Ownership. North Korea Leadership Watch, 2014, archived from the original on September 5, 2014 ; accessed on March 16, 2020 (English).
  3. ^ A b c Ed Butler: From Our Own Correspondent: Mort pour la France. (at min 22:25). BBC Radio 4 , accessed March 16, 2020 .
  4. ^ A b Tom Burson: The bizarre experience of dining at an illegal North Korean restaurant. mic.com, July 4, 2018, accessed March 16, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Devirupa Mitra: Dining with Dear Leader in Dhaka. The New Indian Express, December 29, 2013, accessed March 16, 2020 .
  6. ^ Tash Roslin: North Korea's Hidden Menu. Jakarta Globe, May 6, 2010; archived from the original on December 4, 2017 ; accessed on March 16, 2020 (English).
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g Sebastian Strangio: Kingdom Kim's Culinary Outposts. Slate , March 22, 2010, accessed March 16, 2020 .
  8. Jump up ↑ Yong Yen Nie: Pyongyang Restaurants Extending Reach in Southeast Asian Cities. Voice of America , December 5, 2011; archived from the original on April 29, 2012 ; accessed on March 16, 2020 (English).
  9. ↑ archived website. North Korean Restaurant Pyongyang, 2012, archived from the original on October 12, 2012 ; accessed on March 16, 2020 (English).
  10. ↑ North Koreaans restaurant al weer tight. AT5 Nieuws, September 7, 2012, accessed March 16, 2020 (Dutch).
  11. ^ Paul Byrne: Kim Jong-un 'set to open a new restaurant in SCOTLAND'. Daily Mirror , January 12, 2015, accessed March 16, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Adam Withnall: North Korea denies reports Kim Jong-un is to open state-backed restaurant in Scotland. The Independent , January 12, 2015, accessed March 16, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Li Ruohan: NK eateries in Liaoning ban S.Korean customers. Global Times, June 17, 2016, accessed March 16, 2020 .
  14. ↑ a b Kim Min-se: North Korean Restaurants in China Send $ 10,000 ~ 30,000 Annually Back to Its Native Country. Daily NKf , June 19, 2007, accessed March 16, 2020 .
  15. ^ Kwon Jeong-hyun: North Korean Restaurant in China Shuts Down as Receptionist Escapes. Daily NK , March 21, 2007, accessed March 16, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Kim Yong-hun: Waitresses Flee North Korean Restaurants in Qingdao China. Daily NK , December 15, 2006, accessed March 16, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Kim Yong-hun: North Korean restaurant defectors 'were in China and left legally'. BBC , April 12, 2006, accessed March 16, 2020 .