Meet the North Korean defector and restaurateur who believes ‘reunification of our country starts at the table’
There are about 130 North Korean restaurants overseas, staffed and operated by workers from North Korea, most of whom remit revenue back to Pyongyang.
It is early in the evening and the rush for tables, orders and meals has yet to begin, but the staff of Neung-ra Table are busy preparing for the onslaught. This restaurant, in the Chongno district of central Seoul, has a reputation for the finest and most authentic North Korea cuisine in the South.
Lee Ae-ran, the founder and owner of a restaurant that has become an institution since it opened in 2013, has also built herself quite a reputation.
Survivor, defector, human rights activist, educator and one of the leading voices in the North’s expatriate community in South Korea, she is fulfilling another of her roles today.
There are about 130 North Korean restaurants overseas, staffed and operated by workers from North Korea, most of whom remit revenue back to Pyongyang. Many are in China while there are others in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Middle East.
One, in the Chinese city of Ningbo, was in the news after the North’s Red Cross Society identified it as the restaurant from where 13 staff member left for South Korea last week. South Korea has not said where the 13 were before entering the country, although media reports have said they defected via a Southeast Asian nation. Pyongyang called it a “hideous” abduction by agents from the South.
I only employ women who have defected from the North and we have eight staff now
The restaurants are one of the few sources of hard currency for impoverished, sanctions-hit North Korea, generating roughly US$10 million a year, according to South Korean estimates.