Via a reader tip comes this story about the hardships North Korean businesses are having lately due to the economic climate and financial sanctions:

Bureau 39 has been dubbed Kim’s own slush fund. A chain of eateries offers a glimpse into how the North Korean body makes cash.

Bureau 39. It’s the shady, money-making arm of the North Korean government and is believed to engage in a range of illicit activities including the manufacturing and trafficking of heroin, peddling of fake US banknotes and arms sales.

Part of the North Korean Workers Party, Bureau 39 has been described as Kim Jong-il’s personal slush fund. But it’s about to feel the pinch from tougher US sanctions unveiled this month over the country’s nuclear programme. And these sanctions could also hit one of the more curious arms of this spidery operation—its popular chain of restaurants.

The Pyongyang group of eateries boasts known spots in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Beijing, Kathmandu and Laos. There are said to be as many as 100 North Korea-themed restaurants across Asia, though how many are controlled by the government remains unclear. But for a country obsessed with self-reliance and secrecy, what little is known about this capitalist endeavour still offers a rare glimpse of what lays behind its tightly guarded borders.

Serving such delicacies as dog meat (dangogi), cold buckwheat noodle soup (naengmyeon) and the ubiquitous Korean favourite kimchi (pickled cabbage), the restaurants attract an eclectic clientele including South Korean tourists, Chinese businessmen and even some curious Westerners. Diners are served by pretty North Korean waitresses who can sing and dance, with some even speaking quite good English.

The Pyongyang eateries are known for being friendly but a little pricey and it’s unclear where exactly any profits go. Still, the ultimate destination of the cash spent in the restaurants hasn’t put customers off visiting.

‘I didn’t object to paying (what I did) for my meal, or feel that I was supporting a tyrant,’ says Don Douglas, an American NGO worker who recently ate at a branch in Kathmandu. Like many people who go there he says he wanted to try it once to satisfy his curiosity.  [The Diplomat]

Read the rest at the link, but in my opinion eating at one of these North Korean state run restaurants is financially supporting the Kim regime no matter how you want to spin it, just like the tours into North Korea provide financial support to the Kim regime.  Anyway the rest of the article continues to discuss the economic problems within North Korea, but here is the most naive statement in the entire article by this German business manager working in North Korea:

But German firm Exozet Games, which distributes Nosotek-produced games, says there’s a difference between trading in North Korea and trading with the regime. ‘It’s not like we worked with the government,’ the company’s manager of digital distribution says. ‘We just worked with great people who have nothing to do with the dictatorship.’

This guy is either lying or extremely ignorant because the regime controls everything in North Korea.  This company is not doing business within North Korea without the okay of the regime who is assuredly making a profit from their venture in North Korea.