Hard Times for North Korean Restaurants in Asia

Via The Diplomat, the restaurants’ setbacks defy their limitless supply of morally retarded clientele:

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.

A string of actual and attempted defections has shut several of the restaurants down, The Great Confiscation crimped their cash flow, and reports linking them to money laundering have scared away potential business partners. Restaurants, it seems, can bring bundles of cash to their banks without prompting quite as many questions.