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A comment on Dinner at a North Korean Restaurant in Shanghai (2016).

Re:Dinner at a North Korean Restaurant in Shanghai (2016) by jonp888 on Sunday February 16, 2025 @02:36AM (#43066147)
Until 2020 the you could book a stay in a backpacker hostel in Berlin that was actually located inside the North Korean embassy.

Eventually the German government got fed up with them running a business out of their embassy and they had to shut it down.

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Re:Dinner at a North Korean Restaurant in Shanghai (2016) by kuhewa on Sunday February 16, 2025 @03:58AM (#43066535)
That's incredible. Looks like they leased a building to the hostelers and it was shut down because it violated sanctions, but amazing that the $42,000 a month lease is worth it to dabble in for NK. Then again they were subletting parking spots and rooms previously, perhaps if the order is to milk any property or opportunity overseas it adds up.
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Re:Dinner at a North Korean Restaurant in Shanghai (2016) by threeseed on Sunday February 16, 2025 @04:09AM (#43066596)
> $42,000 a month lease is worth it to dabble in for NK

It's all because the country lacks foreign reserves.

When I visited North Korea years ago the pre-determined hotel, shops, entertainment etc all required USD.

And of course this all predates crypto which has made this trivial.

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Re:Dinner at a North Korean Restaurant in Shanghai (2016) by eleveriven on Sunday February 16, 2025 @08:42AM (#43067890)
That’s wild! It’s such a strange setup
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