--FILE--un nord coreano cameriera serve i clienti cinesi a nord il ristorante Coreano a Changchun city, a nord-est della Cina di provincia di Jilin, 5 Dicembre
--FILE--A North Korean waitress serves Chinese customers at a North Korean restaurant in Changchun city, northeast China's Jilin province, 5 December 2012. Some North Korean restaurants across Asia have closed down and demand is lackluster at others, like the country itself, the establishments seem to be going through a crisis. Staff are suspicious of too many questions. There are about 130 North Korean restaurants overseas, staffed and operated by workers from North Korea, most of which 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. The restaurants are one of the few sources of hard currency for impoverished, sanctions-hit North Korea, generating roughly $10 million a year, according to South Korean estimates.
