Shopping, fast food and lavish dinners: North Korean delegates sample Singaporean capitalism – and McDonald’s
Officials from Pyongyang appear to be living it up in their five star hotel, where breakfast costs US$35 – one month’s wages for the average North Korean
Soon after a group of suited North Korean diplomats set out from their Singapore hotel on Monday for talks with US officials on the eve of a historic summit, a bigger group of North Koreans headed out in summery shirts for some shopping.
US President Donald Trump will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on a small resort island off Singapore’s port on Tuesday for an unprecedented summit aimed at getting the North to give up its nuclear weapons.
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For the leader of isolated North Korea and his delegation of dozens of officials, state media workers and security staff, the rare foreign trip is an opportunity to build diplomatic bridges and to explore the capitalist successes in Singapore, one of the world’s wealthiest city states. One was seen with containers from McDonald’s.
The North Korean delegation is staying at the five-star St Regis hotel where the lobby has a cream-coloured marble floor, chandeliers and large art works on the walls.
The hotel’s lavish S$47 (US$35) per person buffet breakfast costs about the same as what most North Koreans earn in a month.