- "We heard that the girls stay in the Hotel (yes, upstairs) and they are seldom allowed out and that they do not get paid or if they do, the amount is for pocket money as everything from food and lodging to basic necessities are provided by the State."
In more straightforward language: these are slaves.
[late edit]: Here's more about how these slave women are treated:
- "In contrast, he said the high achievers are rewarded with a trip to a North Korean restaurant, where they can pick one of the waitresses to spend the evening with. The top employee of the month gets to choose first. He likened it to a hostess bar - and accused managers of "preying on young men's sexual urges, to get them to compete and bring in more money"."
> We found out that the girls are all from elite North Korean families. The one that served us shared politely that she has worked at this restaurant for one and the half years and all of them are University graduates who consider this their duty and only opportunity to work and serve their country by sharing their culture and food.
I imagine it is worse for the people who aren't children of elite families, nor able to learn Mandarin to get a chance at spending a few years as a restaurant slave.
There is a weird phenomenon I saw on some parts of Lemmy where people decide that, "because America is bad, therefore all its adversaries are good," so they'll be online praising every action from North Korea.
Unfortunately, this is an extremely common way of thinking. It's one of the reasons flinging dirt in politics is so effective I think.
I wonder if there is any connection with this way of thinking and the many David vs Goliath style stories we get as a kid. Maybe we need more stories for children where every character is bad, or every character is good.
There can still be conflict to provide an interesting story between two good parties, or between two bad parties.
If you want North Korean food, but not run by the North Korean government with the weird slavery shit, there's numerous Korean restaurants north of North Korea in Yanbian, Jilin/Changchun, etc. Just regular restaurants, mostly run by Chinese that are ethnically Korean.
I have to admit, I’d be curious to visit one of these restaurants myself. However, one has to be aware of the fact that these restaurants are reportedly linked to the secretive North Korean party organization, Room 39 [1], which means that all revenue flows directly into the hands of the Kim dynasty, so in the best case you'll help financing their next BMW or much worse, the nuclear arms program—neither of these I'm very comfortable with…
After a quick search, I found there are North Korean restaurants in Seoul owned by escapees. Definitely a way to learn about the oppressed North Korean people shut away from the rest of the world without supporting their messed up leaders.
Going by my dad's constant repair bills for his BMW, saddling the North Korean regime with those could be good for diverting funds away from their more unsavory endeavors.
I didn’t see the price mentioned in the article, but given that most restaurants are barely getting by, are we sure they’re really making meaningful money off this place (much less weapons money)? I wonder if it’s more for covert activities.
That's incredible. Looks like they leased a building to the hostelers and it was shut down because it violated sanctions, but amazing that the $42,000 a month lease is worth it to dabble in for NK. Then again they were subletting parking spots and rooms previously, perhaps if the order is to milk any property or opportunity overseas it adds up.
The food called "black rice" in the blog is called sundae or soondae (순대) which in South Korea they put glass noodles and such instead of rice. So it is not North Korean specialty. If you the author haven't tried, you should definitely try from South Korean restaurants too and there are a different versions of food with sundae; steamed, in soup, stirfried in spicy sauce... etc.
My experience echos this but on a smaller scale, I’ve visited the NK run restaurant in Bangkok in 2019 and found it to be basically any average nondescript very dated East Asian / Korean restaurant, but odd. It was smaller, maybe seating 60-75 tops?
The food was fine, and they played NK music (the kind you’d hear on Korean Central Television) while we ate. The unique thing I recall on the menu was the Pyongyang Cold Noodles which I did not get.
Unfortunately the waitresses did not do karaoke which I heard was the entertainment and the whole experience was notable but not like “holy crap”.
When asked about takeaways they did offer to sell me NK cigarettes and Soju.
I visited a similar NK restaurant in Saigon a few times before they closed down decade ago and the experience was the same. What impressed me is that all the NK waitresses can speak the local language (Vietnamese) fluently and can sing or play music instruments. The food is quite authentic, some ingredients are exported from NK. It was a good experience overall.
There's a few NK restaurants in Beijing as well. Very mid food in the 90s. Went back in 2010s and they had a bunch of much tastier new items, can't tell if still traditional or making up new tradition to keep up with the times. Anecdotally from aquaintences, there's American style fast food in Pyongyang, and their fried chicken is very good. Have to keep up with the Korean peninsula fried chicken race.
I think great leader got spoiled by best big macs when he went to school in Switzerland. I wouldn't be surprised if he regularly smuggle fast food ingredients straight from the suppliers in and run a personal fast food court. I think he gave up on reunifying with the south after all the Subway product placement in KDramas, and realized the south was too far gone.
Readit News
In more straightforward language: these are slaves.
[late edit]: Here's more about how these slave women are treated:
- "In contrast, he said the high achievers are rewarded with a trip to a North Korean restaurant, where they can pick one of the waitresses to spend the evening with. The top employee of the month gets to choose first. He likened it to a hostess bar - and accused managers of "preying on young men's sexual urges, to get them to compete and bring in more money"."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68226271 ("North Koreans working in China 'exploited like slaves" (2024))
I imagine it is worse for the people who aren't children of elite families, nor able to learn Mandarin to get a chance at spending a few years as a restaurant slave.
There is a weird phenomenon I saw on some parts of Lemmy where people decide that, "because America is bad, therefore all its adversaries are good," so they'll be online praising every action from North Korea.
I wonder if there is any connection with this way of thinking and the many David vs Goliath style stories we get as a kid. Maybe we need more stories for children where every character is bad, or every character is good.
There can still be conflict to provide an interesting story between two good parties, or between two bad parties.
I’m sure the girls can’t escape or their families will be killed.
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There's iirc <100k North Korean in South Korea, and >>100k in China, mostly Jilin province
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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_39
That's for sure
tbo, dishes at the restaurant are very expensive , and the taste is just average(my personal opinion)
the primary reason I went to there is I hope the money I paid can help them build more Hwasong-18s, or if it could help their 20x10 plan
https://www.38north.org/2024/08/north-koreas-regional-develo...
Eventually the German government got fed up with them running a business out of their embassy and they had to shut it down.
It's all because the country lacks foreign reserves.
When I visited North Korea years ago the pre-determined hotel, shops, entertainment etc all required USD.
And of course this all predates crypto which has made this trivial.
The food was fine, and they played NK music (the kind you’d hear on Korean Central Television) while we ate. The unique thing I recall on the menu was the Pyongyang Cold Noodles which I did not get.
Unfortunately the waitresses did not do karaoke which I heard was the entertainment and the whole experience was notable but not like “holy crap”.
When asked about takeaways they did offer to sell me NK cigarettes and Soju.