20 overseas N. Korean restaurants closed: spy agency

NIS chief Lee Byung-ho (Yonhap)

SEOUL, April. 27 (Yonhap) — Some 20 overseas restaurants run by the North Korean regime have either stopped operations or closed down outright, a South Korean ruling party lawmaker said Wednesday, citing Seoul’s spy agency.

Lee Chul-woo of the ruling Saenuri Party made the comment to reporters after holding a meeting with officials from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) at the National Assembly.

“The restaurants in foreign countries have either halted business or have been closed due to financial difficulties,” Lee said, adding that the NIS believes Pyongyang will more likely turn to illegal means to raise hard currency.

North Korea-run restaurants in foreign nations serve as one of the main sources of hard currency flowing into North Korea. Some of these funds are suspected of bankrolling the North’s nuke and missile programs amid toughened international sanctions.

South Korea estimates that North Korea runs approximately 130 restaurants in some 12 countries including China, Vietnam and Cambodia, earning US$10 million annually.

“North Korea is also engaged in various illegal acts such as forging export and import documents, trafficking banned products and opening fake accounts,” Lee said.

The revelation comes after a group of 13 North Koreans who worked at a North Korea-run restaurant in the Chinese eastern port city of Ningbo defected to South Korea en masse earlier this month.

Regarding the defection, the NIS said that there were initially more people who had intended to flee. The North, in contrast, has claimed that Seoul tricked the workers into fleeing and demanded their return.

“There were 20 restaurant workers and all of them intended to defect together. However, seven of them gave up after concerns over their families,” Lee quoted the NIS, denying Pyongyang’s abduction claim.

Amid lingering speculation that the North may carry out a fifth nuclear test ahead of the country’s party congress next week, the NIS said the test is very imminent.

North Korea has a track record of displaying its military might ahead of key events. The country carried out its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6, two days before the birthday of Kim Jong-un, the country’s current leader.

“Everything has already been prepared and there is no real additional cost,” the lawmaker quoted the NIS as saying, adding that the test will be conducted on the young leader’s instructions.

In a separate matter, the NIS also denied allegations that the agency gave support to a local conservative civic group accused of “staging” a pro-government rally.

The weekly magazine Sisa Journal earlier said that an official handling public communications at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae sent a text message to the secretary general of the Association for Parents of South Korea, asking him to hold a rally in support of Seoul’s agreement reached with Tokyo late last year on the sexual slavery issue.

In December, the two countries agreed to settle their decades-long dispute over the “comfort women.” Tokyo formally apologized for the crime, acknowledged responsibility and pledged to pay 1 billion yen (US$9.1 million) in reparations.

Despite the deal, which has been hailed by some as a historic breakthrough in bilateral relations, the South Korean government has been under fire from the former sex slaves and progressive activist groups, which claimed Tokyo did not offer a sincere apology for its past deeds.

“I have been briefed that the NIS has nothing to do (with the allegations),” Lee Byung-ho, chief of the NIS, was quoted by an opposition lawmaker who attended the meeting, as saying.