SEOUL, South Korea — You still can’t get a hamburger in Pyongyang, but the suspiciously similar “minced beef and bread” is for sale at the North Korean capital’s first fast-food restaurant, a news report said Saturday.
The Samtaeseong restaurant opened in the isolated communist country last month in cooperation with a Singaporean company, according to the Tokyo-based Choson Sinbo. The Singaporean company, which the newspaper did not name, provided training to restaurant staff and supplied equipment.
The restaurant’s interior appears to be styled after fast-food joints the world over, but the menu is careful not to call its signature fare a hamburger — lest it give the impression North Koreans had embraced the American icon.
The minced beef and bread costs only $1.70, but that would eat up more than half of the average North Korean’s daily income. South Korea’s central bank put last year’s average per capita income at $1,065. The Associated Press
