You still can't get a burger in Pyongyang, but the suspiciously similar “minced beef and bread” is for sale at the North Korean capital's first fast food restaurant, a news report said Saturday. The Samtaeseong restaurant opened in the isolated communist country last month in cooperation with a Singaporean company, according to the Tokyo-based Choson Sinbo. The Singaporean company, which the newspaper did not name, 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 $1.70, the newspaper said, but that would eat up nearly half of the average North Korean's daily income. The restaurant also plans to add croissants and hot dogs to its menu in the coming months but with Korean names, according to the newspaper.
