Our obsession with North Korea is pretty well documented. We’ve previously written about the North Korean government opening up restaurants in Southeast Asia, but it was not until the closure of a similar restaurant in Amsterdam this week that we became aware of Pyongyang setting up an eatery in the western world.
The Pyongyang restaurant was opened by Remco van Daal earlier in the year. From all accounts, it seems extremely similar in style and theme to those opened by the North Korean government in Cambodia and Thailand, albeit for the lack of dog meat on the menu and the one white dude that manages the floor.
Full Color Amsterdam posted this great video of their visit to the restaurant (we particularly love when they ask van Daal whether he is laundering money for the North Korean government):
Fortunately or unfortunately the restaurant closed earlier in the week due to a “disagreement between its Dutch owners and North Korean staff”. The American in North Korea blog quoted Dutch newspaper articles as noting the North Koreans had complained about non-payment, while van Daal left with the impression that “the whole operation was a deliberate plan by the (North) Koreans to gain access to the Netherlands and to obtain work permits.”
Joe.
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