I have yet to set foot in North Korea (although I've seen it).
Perhaps even closer than seeing it, though, was eating at it--or at least, eating at an establishment run by it.
The Pyongyang Okryu-gwan restaurant is located in Dubai's Deira City Center neighborhood, walking distance from the metro, nestled in a neighborhood of Dubai municipal buildings and apartment blocks. The Pyongyang chain of North Korean restaurants number as many as 130, according to Wikipedia, and although most are located in China, there are some sprinkled elsewhere in Russia, Asia and the Middle East.
Ostensibly, these restaurants are run by an extension of the Korean government, and are purported to serve as money-laundering bases. Due to sanctions, eating at these restaurants pose an international moral dilemma for some: South Korea recently asked their citizens to not eat at North Korean-run restaurants abroad. South Koreans make up a strong contingency of people eager to share in the food and culture of North Korea, making a point to frequent the Pyongyang chain in many places around the world.
The chance to interact with the people working in these restaurants, who are from North Korea and maintain tight seclusion from the countries in which they work and reside, is, for most people, the only interaction they will get with citizens of the world's most closed-off country.
On the day that my friend and I went, the restaurant was filled with female waitresses (no male employee in sight). They were picture-perfect models of North Korean femininity--from their well-make-upped faces and conservatively styled hair to their girl-like above-the-knee dresses. Their limited English did not stop them from engaging with guests, and they were very attune to our request to keep some of the dishes vegetarian. Hospitality, it would seem, is their forte.
The biggest revelation that separated these women from the people who came to dine there occurred when we asked them to take our photo. One woman was proffered for the job by the others, but her experience with cellphones seemed practically null. It took a great while and a lot of coaxing before we were able to show her how it worked and press the correct button for the photo. The irony that their South Korean counterparts had made the phone was probably lost on her.
A trip to the restroom revealed what would appear to be a part of their living space: the bathroom, open to guests, apparently doubled as the women's private toilet and laundry facility, with all personal affects hidden away, except for a clothes drying rack folded neatly in the corner.
Although they were keen to talk about basic things (the women offered compliments and conversation starters of their own accord, such as asking where we were from), they seemed not at liberty to discuss details of their own lives, or else were able to avoid most questions by reason of their language skills. Even by how they carried themselves, it was obvious that these were not just any North Koreans, applying for an opportunity to live and work overseas. They had an air of the elite. They were meticulous, educated, and carrying a lot of responsibility on their shoulders to represent not only their country but presumably their well-connected families. An article in Foreign Policy reveals the same, stating that, "Permission to work abroad is an honor and a lucrative opportunity for North Koreans."
This month, South Korea revealed the defection of 13 North Korean restaurant employees. The majority of annual defections to South Korea are primarily the poor; to have such a large contingency of defectors from North Korea's elite is unusual.
It remains to be seen if this defection poses a threat to the restaurant employees who remain abroad, living and working in seclusion but still able to encounter the rest of the world in a way most of their home-bound counterparts cannot. Diplomacy was once defined to me as "people to people interactions." Where talking heads of state fall short, individuals are still able to break down barriers. Even if laundering money is their aim, perhaps these restaurants fulfill other needs: enabling North Koreans to encounter those they have only otherwise known through the eyes of their state.