North Korea's first fast-food joint opens

You still can't get a hamburger in Pyongyang, but the suspiciously similar "minced beef and bread" is for sale at the North Korean capital's first fast-food restaurant.

The Samtaesong restaurant opened in the isolated communist country last month in cooperation with a Singaporean company. The Singaporean company provided training to restaurant staff and supplied equipment.

The restaurant's interior appears to be styled after fast-food joints the world over, but the menu is careful not to call its signature fare a hamburger - lest it give the impression North Koreans had embraced the American icon.



North Korea's authoritarian government is concerned that outside influences could undermine the regime and pose a threat to leader Kim Jong Il's tight grip on the nation of 24 million. It balks at using foreign words and coins alternatives in Korean instead.

The minced beef and bread at the new fast-food restaurant costs only US$1.70, (NZ$2.63) the newspaper said, but that would eat up more than half of the average North Korean's daily income. South Korea's central bank put last year's average per capita income at US$1065 (NZ$1650).

The restaurant also offers kimchi - Korean pickled cabbage - as well as waffles and draft beer. It plans to add croissants and hot dogs to its menu in the coming months but with Korean names, and will open another branch in the capital soon.