Kimchi and a Show: Inside a North Korean

Restaurant in Beijing

In Beijing's Korea town, a bustling restaurant with a full house on a Saturday evening is a rare sight given China's weak consumer economy. The Pyongyang restaurant, operating since 2004, is doing a roaring trade. As a Chinese friend and I wait in line, North Korean waitresses in pale pink suits serve up Korean barbecue with Pyongyang-style cold noodles and kimchi. The diners are mostly Chinese families and groups, with a few eastern Europeans.

### The Menu and the Morality of Dining

The menu is pricey by China standards, but most customers aren't here for the food. They're here for dinner with a show – and a glimpse, however stage-managed, behind the curtain of the world's most secretive country. The North Korean government earns much-needed foreign currency from this enterprise, which has sister franchises across China, Asia, Russia, and the Middle East.

### A Morally Complex Dilemma

The exception is the 20-minute evening show, where diners can whip out their phones as the staff transform into talented accordion players, singers, and dancers wearing colourful hanbok (traditional dresses). This cultural spectacle is jarring, considering the tightly controlled lives of the women who staff these restaurants. Testimonies gathered by human rights groups reveal that these 'jobs' are highly coveted by young, beautiful, and talented musicians from loyal, upper-class families.

### What Happens Next?

The waitresses speak Chinese and are polite but don't linger for chat or want to be filmed or photographed. One employee tells us she'll work here for three or four years, then hastily departs. Little is known about the lives of these women, who are dispatched to staff these restaurants. They're an avenue out of North Korea, a window into the outside world, and a way to earn a small salary, but their movements are tightly controlled, and their wages are mostly confiscated by the regime.

"Are you a Chinese person?" a waitress asks my friend, searching for confirmation that he's not an infiltrator.

### Background on Forced Labour

A number of North Korean waitresses defected to South Korea, including a highly publicised case in 2016 involving 13 workers from a restaurant in southern China. The restaurant manager later claimed he had worked with South Korean intelligence agencies to dupe the women into defecting against their will. In 2024, North Korea's dictator Kim Jong-un renounced the country's decades-long goal of reunification, designating the South as the 'principal enemy'.

### China's Role

China maintains it complies with UN sanctions which prohibit the employment of North Korean workers, a measure designed to strangle the regime's access to funding for its nuclear weapons program. It's widely suspected that waitresses and other workers are brought in on tourist or student visas.

### A Global Problem

The North Korean restaurant chain is part of a much larger overseas workforce of North Koreans, estimated by the UN to be about 100,000 workers across 40 countries, many deployed in construction and factories in suspected forced labor conditions. Along with IT hackers and cryptocurrency raiders, they've raked in billions for the Kim regime.

### Key Facts:

  • At least 100 North Korean restaurants operate across China, Asia, Russia, and the Middle East.
  • The restaurants employ around 100,000 workers in suspected forced labor conditions.
  • The North Korean government earns billions in foreign currency from this enterprise.
  • The UN sanctions prohibit the employment of North Korean workers.
  • The waitresses are mostly from loyal, upper-class families in North Korea.
  • Many North Korean workers have defected to South Korea.

### Context: Forced Labour around the World

Forced labour is a global problem. According to the ILO, there are approximately 46 million modern slavery victims worldwide, with 24.9 million in forced labour and 15.4 million in forced marriage. This issue transcends borders and is a concern for both workers and businesses. As the world grapples with the complexities of globalisation, it's crucial to address these labour injustices.