# North Korea Opens International Restaurant Chain **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 7, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708 "2011-01-07T03:23:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708/21 "2011-01-19T13:50:09Z")
> [@ecseas](#): > > Kim believes he made the hamburger. Can anyone find the original North Korea News Agency article about this? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708/22 "2011-01-19T14:05:39Z")
> [@](#): > > cold noodle on shallow round plate Yumm!!! ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708/23 "2011-01-19T14:11:09Z")
If you’ve not seen it, the Vice Guide to North Korea is definately worth watching (you can find it on YouTube, I can’t access that from work so no linky). Shane Smith goes to several resturants in North Korea which are all bizzare beyond discription and only for tourists so they can…act like really weird North Korean people and pretend to have tons and tons of food. I can only imagine that these resturants would be something like that but somehow even more so. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708/24 "2011-01-19T21:07:18Z")
I’ll be working in Amsterdam for the next couple of months, so if it’s open by that time I _might_ check it out. Definitely have a look through the windows - I’m not sure I want to put money into NK. [They’re looking for people to work there](http://www.pyongyangrestaurant.com/working_for_pyongyang.html): “Minimum 2 years experience in senior positions in DPRK restaurants” for managers and “Entertain the guests with singing North-Korean traditional songs, sometimes play an instrument and dance traditional North-Korean dances with other waitresses and sometimes with guests” for waitresses. According to Dutch newspaper NRC, there’s only one single North Korean living in Amsterdam. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708/25 "2011-01-19T22:03:17Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > According to Dutch newspaper NRC, there’s only one single North Korean living in Amsterdam. And being such is most likely an “illegal” as far as NK is concerned, meaning that he won’t get within 10 miles of that place ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708/26 "2011-01-19T23:35:27Z")
They children in Best Korea starving because we give you this food. You clean plate! ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708/27 "2011-01-20T01:02:37Z")
> [@tingbudong](#): > > I went to a North Korean place in Ulan Bator back in 2006…the tiny ‘friendship’ center in the back is an interesting addition. I just have to ask, what was the tiny ‘friendship’ center? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708/28 "2011-01-20T01:04:15Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Is this it? > > [Kim Jong Il Looking At Things](http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/) What a bizarre website. He looks like a cute old lady. ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708/29 "2011-01-20T06:45:22Z")
There are several North Korean restaurants here in China, especially in my part of the country. I don’t know if they’re part of this particular chain, but I’ve eaten at at least two of them. They’re nothing special, really: NK flags, pictures of the Kims, decent-enough Korean food. Each time I’ve visited one I’ve noticed that I’m the only person there. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708/30 "2011-01-20T07:46:42Z")
> [@fuzzypickles](#): > > The [corn-on-the-cob photo](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lcc3ui3iSD1qewv1lo1_500.jpg) looks disturbingly phallic. :eek: > > Pity there’s no photo of Kim watching _Team America: World Police_ while wearing an “America, Fuck Yeah!” t-shirt. He looks so ronery! ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708/31 "2011-01-20T08:08:56Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > [They’re looking for people to work there](http://www.pyongyangrestaurant.com/working_for_pyongyang.html): “Minimum 2 years experience in senior positions in DPRK restaurants” for managers and “Entertain the guests with singing North-Korean traditional songs, sometimes play an instrument and dance traditional North-Korean dances with other waitresses and sometimes with guests” for waitresses. According to Dutch newspaper NRC, there’s only one single North Korean living in Amsterdam. Boy, that’s gonna be one busy North Korean expatriate restaurant manager/waitperson/singer/dancer/music player. Does the poor guy or gal also have to be the chef, too? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708/32 "2011-01-20T14:03:47Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > I didn’t mean that Ethiopian restaurants were non-existent in the USA back then, I meant that people would make jokes about the food you would find there, since the Ethiopa famine was in the news. Making those sort of jokes about North Korean restraunts today is about as relevant as making jokes about Ethiopian restaurants was a decade ago. While I’m sure there are still many poor and hungry people in both countries, their respective famines happened long ago. And let’s not forget that even the USA and other western nations have “a problem feeding [their] own people”—the problem may not be as dire as it is in the DPRK, but it undeniably exists. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-opens-international-restaurant-chain/566708.md?page=1)