North Korea defies UN sanctions with restaurants operating in Cambodia

[PHNOM PENH] AT least three and possibly more North Korean restaurants are operating in Cambodia's capital in apparent violation of United Nations sanctions that took effect earlier this year.

Three of the restaurants in Phnom Penh, the names of which all include the word "Pyongyang", are staffed by North Korean workers and offer products from that country, including blueberry wine and ginseng.

They're part of a well-documented global network of businesses that have been generating cash for the North Korean regime for years. New sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council in September in response to North Korea's testing of nuclear weapons required that such businesses be closed by Jan 9. The resolution banned the operation of all joint ventures or cooperative entities, new and existing, with North Korean entities or individuals, whether or not acting for or on behalf of North Korea.

US President Donald Trump is aiming to get countries to comply with tighter sanctions to put pressure on Pyongyang, even as Kim Jong-un reaches out for talks about his country's nuclear programme. The two leaders are scheduled to meet in Singapore on June 12, though Mr Trump cast doubt on Tuesday about whether the summit will take place then.

Khieu Kanharith, Cambodia's minister of information, said his country complies with UN regulations and referred further questions to the foreign ministry. A spokesman there didn't respond to emails and phone calls. Faxes sent to the North Korean embassy in Phnom Penh failed to go through, and a phone number listed in online directories connected to a man who identified himself as a farmer and said he has had the number for three years and continues to get calls for the embassy.

All three restaurants in Phnom Penh feature waitresses wearing name tags in the red and blue colours of North Korea's flag with their names written in white in place of the star. They wear similar shoes and hair styles, sing songs, play music and dance as well as serve food.

The travel review website, TripAdvisor.com, shows photos of women dressed similarly, with the same name badges, at a Pyongyang Restaurant in Siem Reap, near Angkor Wat, and a traveller's review from February encourages "the experience of interacting with North Koreans".

At the Pyongyang Traditional Restaurant, in a Phnom Penh neighbourhood filled with embassies, about a dozen waitresses served dishes including bibimbap and cold buckwheat noodles one evening last week to a room filled with Mandarin-speaking businessmen, a group of South Koreans and a few European tourists. North Korean products and magazines were for sale on a shelf near the entrance.

Another restaurant, Pyongyang Unhasu in the north-western part of the capital, has bright yellow tablecloths and seating for 200. Young women stand outside greeting customers. Brochures available inside advertise North Korean beer and wine made with blueberries from the Paektu forest.

The third restaurant in Phnom Penh, Pyongyang Arirang, is on a busy street near several government ministries. Employees who answered the phones at the three Phnom Penh restaurants on Tuesday said they use and sell products sourced from North Korea. A woman at Pyongyang Arirang said her establishment was staffed by North Koreans and locals.

A man at Pyongyang Unhasu said he was North Korean but wouldn't comment about other employees. A waitress at Pyongyang Traditional said she couldn't talk about the nationality of the restaurant's workers.

All three declined to say anything about where the money went.

The cash-only Pyongyang restaurants are part of a network that at its peak had more than 100 outlets across China, South-east Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe, said Kim Byung-yeon, an economics professor at Seoul National University who researches North Korea's sources of financing.

The Phnom Penh Post reported that eight such restaurants were operating in Cambodia as at 2015. "All these restaurants abroad are operated with one of the state institutions - it could be the party, the army, the Cabinet or a local government," Prof Kim said.

He added that the staff were picked on the basis of age, beauty and singing abilities. They do not have to be a party member, but they have to make money for the institution.

As many as 60,000 North Koreans are working in more than 50 countries, according to estimates by South Korea's foreign ministry.

Cambodia and North Korea long had what government officials in the past have termed a "special relationship". Norodom Sihanouk, the former king of Cambodia, considered Kim Il Sung, founder of North Korea and the current leader's grandfather, a close friend.

These days, it's much harder to get the money that the Pyongyang restaurants generate back to North Korea, Prof Kim said. Chinese banks, too, are subject to UN sanction orders to halt money transfers and close any accounts being used to support the government there.

The sanctions also require that North Koreans working abroad be repatriated immediately but no later than December 2019.

Despite the tightening of sanctions, implementation has continued to be an issue. At a briefing for the Security Council in February, Dutch diplomat Karel Jan Gustaaf van Oosterom said "a large number" of countries hadn't submitted required reports on enforcement.

BLOOMBERG