Before defecting, North Korean waitresses shopped for backpacks

[Lodestar]

Source: Reuters

Two days before they sought asylum in South Korea, the North Korean waitresses in the Chinese coastal city of Ningbo shopped for backpacks at a nearby store and paid relatively expensive full prices.

"I asked them 'Are you going on a trip?', and they said yes," said one of the workers at the shop, who declined to give his name. "They seemed happy."

Another shop worker, surnamed Gong, confirmed the story.

Four waitresses from the Ryugyong Korean Restaurant visited the nearby store on April 5 and bought three backpacks, each for the listed 199 yuan (about $31), even though they were often known to bargain, the workers said.

Two days later, 12 of the restaurant's waitresses and one manager arrived in Seoul, the South Korean capital, in the biggest mass defection case involving North Koreans in several years.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-defectors-restaurant-idUSKCN0XA0VW

[Baobab]

1. These restaurants are all around the world and seem really bizarre.

Good for them.

This will be interesting, a glimpse into these secretive restaurants, which employ exceptionally pretty North Korean ladies from well connected families in the core caste.

But the restaurants business model seems to be failing. At least in China.

Because of "Songbun" their families likely will suffer immediate loss of their privileged status and permission to live in Pyongyang, and likely, internal exile, possibly even to political prison camps.

Probably tens of millions of North Koreans, a very large number, have died that way.

[underpants]

2. I'd like to call in an order TO GO

Good for them.