North Korea opens US-style fast-food restaurant - but don't mention the hamburger - Telegraph
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Instead, patrons of the Samtaeseong diner, which opened in Pyongyang last month, have to order a suspiciously similar "minced beef with bread". The isolated Communist state has long banned what it calls Western or US "imperialist influences" on its people. But there was only so long it could hold out against the temptations of fast food. The restaurant was opened with the help of a Singaporean company, according to the Choson Sinbo, a North Korean newspaper operating out of Japan. The newspaper added that the restaurant also serves waffles and draft beer, and is planning to introduce hot dogs and croissants to its menu, but with Korean names. All of its burgers, whether made of minced beef, fish or vegetables, come with lashings of kimchi, the spicy pickled cabbage that Koreans prize. Minced beef and bread costs $1.70 (£1.03), roughly the same price as a McDonald's cheeseburger in the UK but almost half the daily income of an average North Korean. The average wage in North Korea last year was just under £650. In March, the Choson Sinbo said Kim Jong-il had also ordered the opened of the country's first Italian restaurant, with pizza on the menu. |
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