Eat Like a North Korean

"North Korean capitalism is thriving," says former Far Eastern Economic Review correspondent Bertil Lintner, "just not in North Korea." The dictatorship is playing entrepreneur abroad to keep its socialist paradise afloat at home, setting up small businesses that funnel money back to the regime. Exhibit A, says Lintner, is Pyongyang's answer to Planet Hollywood:

Consider, for instance, Cafe Pyongyang, one of Vladivostok's most popular eateries. It is so popular, in fact, that there are plans to build a new restaurant in the shape of a North Korean peasant's hut, similar to the one where the late leader Kim Il-sung was born in 1912. Here, gracefully clothed North Korean women serve up traditional Korean fare, while patrons sing popular Korean tunes.

Similarly themed restaurants have popped up in Beijing and Shanghai in China, and Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia.

Whole thing here.