Pyongyang (restaurant chain) facts for kids
Pyongyang Restaurant is a chain of restaurants named after Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea. There are about 130 of these restaurants around the world. They are owned and run by a group called the Haedanghwa Group, which is part of the North Korean government.
Where You Can Find Them
Most Pyongyang restaurants are located in China, especially near the border with North Korea. You can also find them in big Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Since the 2000s, the chain has opened restaurants in many cities across Southeast Asia. These include places like Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia, and Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam. Other locations are in Vientiane (Laos), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Jakarta (Indonesia), and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).
You can also find these restaurants in Ulan Bator (Mongolia), Vladivostok and Moscow (Russia), Dubai (UAE), and Kathmandu (Nepal). At first, these restaurants were popular with South Korean business people working in Southeast Asia. Now, many curious tourists also enjoy visiting them.
In 2012, the first Pyongyang restaurant outside of Asia opened in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was run with some Dutch partners. However, this restaurant closed in September 2012 due to disagreements. It tried to reopen in 2013 under a new name, Haedanghwa, but closed again a year later.
Some branches, like those in Bangkok, closed for a while but later reopened. The branch in Hanoi closed in 2020. There was also talk about a new restaurant opening in Scotland. This was linked to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's interest in Scotland after its 2014 independence vote. However, North Korean officials have said this is not true. According to a Japanese newspaper, there are about 100 North Korean restaurants in China alone.
What They Offer
The restaurants serve traditional Korean food. You can try dishes like kimchi, which is spicy fermented cabbage. They also serve Pyongyang cold noodles, barbecued cuttlefish, and even dog meat soup. Customers can also buy North Korean products, such as ginseng wine. The prices at these restaurants are usually quite high and are often listed in US dollars.
The people who work at the restaurants are young Korean women. They wear beautiful traditional dresses called Chosŏn-ot. These staff members also entertain the customers by singing, dancing, and performing karaoke. Their performances are often in the style of North Korea's famous Mass Games. The staff usually work on contracts for three years. Many of them are highly trained graduates from arts colleges in North Korea. Taking photos inside the restaurants is generally not allowed.
How They Are Run
These restaurants are part of a larger effort by the North Korean government to earn money from other countries. They are believed to be connected to a special government group called Room 39. This group helps the North Korean leadership get and manage money from outside the country.
People who have left North Korea say that local partners help run these restaurants. These partners are expected to send money back to the North Korean government every year. The North Korean staff live at the restaurant locations. They are carefully chosen for their loyalty to the government. They are also closely watched by North Korean security agents who are on site. In the 2000s, some waitresses in China tried to escape. This led to several restaurants closing and their staff being sent back to North Korea. In 2016, South Korea announced that 13 restaurant workers from a Pyongyang restaurant abroad had left the chain.
