PHNOM PENH - Its undoubtedly the liveliest
and most popular Korean restaurant in town. Packed
for lunch and dinner, the Pyongyang Restaurant is
famous not only for its cold noodles and barbecue
served with kim chi, but also for its
talented wait staff, which when not serving are
dancing to traditional Korean tunes played on
violins and electric piano.
But the
Pyongyang Restaurant in Cambodia's capital Phnom
Penh is no ordinary Korean eatery. For one, it's
owned and run by the North Korean government, a
capitalist enterprise that sends its profits
directly to state coffers in Pyongyang. As with most
other upper-crust restaurants
in Phnom Penh, the meals have to be paid for in US
dollars, not in riel, as the local currency is not
convertible outside Cambodia.
When the
international community imposed economic sanctions
against North Korea after its nuclear tests last
October, the Pyongyang authorities were able to
continue to run a string of small-scale companies
and businesses across the region that kept
foreign-currency earnings flowing back home.
Restaurants such as the Pyongyang Restaurant in
Cambodia have in no small way helped keep the
North Korean government afloat during tough
diplomatic times.
And the establishments'
often booming business are proving North Koreans
are no slouches as capitalists. Government-backed
North Korean eateries are mushrooming across the
region. For years there have been various North
Korean-themed restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai and
other Chinese cities. But the first was opened in
Southeast Asia only in 2002 in the Cambodian town
of Siem Reap, a popular tourist destination
because of its proximity to the Angkor Wat temple
complex.
It became an instant success -
especially with the thousands of South Korean
tourists who flock to see the ancient Angkor ruins
every year - so successful, indeed, that Pyongyang
decided to open a second venue in Phnom Penh in
December 2003. Most of the clientele there are
South Korean businessmen who work in Cambodia as
well as a smattering of homesick South Korean
tourists who drool over the authentic Korean eats.
And while severe food shortages still plague North
Korea itself, the fare in Phnom Penh is good and
plentiful.
The choice of Cambodia for this
North Korean capitalist experiment was, of course,
no coincidence. Norodom Sihanouk, the country's
erstwhile strongman - first as king, then as
prince, later as leader in exile and finally king
again from September 1993 until his abdication in
October 2004 - is a longtime close friend of North
Korea.
He met the late North Korean leader
Kim Il-sung in 1961 at a Non-Aligned Movement
meeting in Belgrade. Four years later, Sihanouk
was invited to visit Pyongyang, and a personal
bond developed between the two leaders. When
Sihanouk was ousted by his own military in a coup
in March 1970, he was immediately offered
sanctuary in North Korea.
Sihanouk's
government-in-exile, which included senior Khmer
Rouge cadres, was in Beijing. But by 1974, Kim
Il-sung had built a special private getaway
expressly for Sihanouk about an hour's drive north
of Pyongyang. A battalion of North Korean troops
worked full-time for nearly a year on the palatial
residence and, when it was finally finished, only
specially selected guards were allowed anywhere
near Sihanouk's 60-room home away from home.
Overlooking scenic Chhang Sou On Lake and
surrounded by mountains, the Korean-style building
even included its own indoor movie theater. Like
the "Great Leader", Kim Il-sung, and his son,
"Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il, Sihanouk loved to watch
movies.
Sihanouk returned to Cambodia
after the government of Lon Nol was overthrown in
April 1975 and Sihanouk's communist allies, the
Khmer Rouge, came to power. But when the Khmer
Rouge put him under virtual house arrest in the
royal palace in Phnom Penh, from where he narrowly
managed to escape when the Vietnamese invaded in
January 1979, Sihanouk was flown out on a Chinese
plane and returned to his grand North Korean
residence.
When Sihanouk triumphantly
returned to Phnom Penh in 1991, he came with North
Korean escorts, both as personal bodyguards and as
diplomats, who took up residence in a huge new
embassy built for them near the Independence
Monument in downtown Phnom Penh. And in 1993, when
Sihanouk was officially reinstalled as the king of
Cambodia, he surrounded himself in the
civil-war-torn country with people he knew he
could trust - North Korean bodyguards.
So
it is not surprising that hanging prominently on
the wall at Phnom Penh's Pyongyang Restaurant is a
picture of Sihanouk, his wife Monique and their
son King Norodom Sihamoni. According to locals
familiar with the restaurant's opening, the
Cambodian royal family was among the first guests
to dine there.
Business opportunities are
still fairly limited in Cambodia, so last year the
North Koreans opened an even bigger restaurant in
neighboring Thailand. Its first day of operation
was auspiciously chosen as August 15, coinciding
with the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World
War II. The Bangkok branch of the Pyongyang
Restaurant is tucked away down a side alley in the
city's gritty Pattanakarn suburb, far from areas
Westerners usually frequent but very near the
North Korean Embassy.
Inside, the walls
are decorated with paintings of Kim Il-sung's
alleged birthplace, a peasant hut in Mangyongdae
near Pyongyang. An all-women's band, dressed in
traditional Korean dresses known as hambok
and in the North, chima jogoiri in the
South and, of course, with little Kim Il-sung
badges on their blouses, plays upbeat music on
electric guitars, drums and electric piano.
It's not exactly a tourist attraction, but
it's a colorful backdrop for businessmen and
diplomats to cut deals or exchange the information
that has in recent years helped to make Thailand
into North Korea's third-largest global trading
partner after nearby China and South Korea. There
are no signs of economic sanctions or deprivation
here, but rather, perhaps, a tantalizing glimpse
of a one day more prosperous and joyful North
Korea.
Bertil Lintner is a
former correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic
Review, where he reported frequently on Cambodian
politics and economics. He is currently a writer
with Asia-Pacific Media Services.
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