Pyongyang

Pyongyang is a restaurant chain named after the capital of North Korea, with around 130 locations worldwide. The restaurants are owned and operated by the Haedanghwa Group, an organization of the government of North Korea. Locations Most Pyongyang restaurants are found near the North Korean border in China, as well as in Beijing and Shanghai. Since the 2000s, the chain has been expanding into Southeast Asian cities including Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, Vientiane, Dhaka, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. There are also restaurants in Ulaanbaatar, Vladivostok, Moscow, Dubai and Kathmandu. The restaurants initially catered to the many South Korean businessmen in Southeast Asia, and have now become popular with curious tourists. The first Western outpost of the restaurant chain was opened in Amsterdam in 2012, in the residential neighbourhood of Osdorp, along with Dutch co-owners. The menu and policies of this restaurant differed from its Asian counterparts. However, in September 2012, amid mutual accusations between the Korean staff and the Dutch partner, the restaurant closed. It reopened in December 2013 under the name Haedanghwa in a new location, but closed a year later. The restaurant's locations in Bangkok were temporarily shut down, but were re-opened again in 2015. Similarly, their branches in Pattaya were closed down. The branch in Hanoi shut down in 2020.