A taste of North Korean food in Vientiane

Original Title:  Would You Like A Side Of Propaganda? Lunch At A North Korean Restaurant
By:  Elise Hu, NPR News, September 5, 2016
With contributions from:  Xaisongkham Induangchanthy

North Korean restaurants, like this one in Vientiane, Laos, 

don't just serve North Korean cuisine.  They are run by the North Korean 

government as a way to earn hard currency to send back to an increasingly 

sanctioned Pyongyang.  Photo Credit: Elise Hu/NPR

The North Korean regime's network of overseas restaurants have enjoyed a bit of renown this year, after the defection en masse of 13 restaurant workers from one of the Pyongyang dining outposts in Northeastern China this spring.

Those restaurant workers are now in South Korea, having absconded in the biggest mass defection from North Korea in history.

That North Korea-run restaurant from which the 12 waitresses and their manager escaped is now closed. But South Korea's government believes North Korea still operates more than 100 of these restaurants in a dozen countries that maintain diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, as they're a source of hard currency for the Kim Jong Un regime.

The majority are in China. One of them is in the capital of Laos, Vientiane, where global leaders will be this week for a major Asia summit.

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