Ready, steady, boycott! Korean tensions spill over to restaurants

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/

via CAAI

Jan 12, 2011

Phnom Penh - Ongoing tension on the Korean Peninsula has reached Korean eateries in Cambodia, local media reported Thursday, with boycotts of North Korean restaurants by South Korean tour groups and allegations of reprisal raids on South Korean restaurants by North Korean 'agents.'

Park Jeong Yeon, who heads the Phnom Penh branch of the Korean Association of Cambodia, said the sinking of the warship Cheonan last year, in which 46 South Korean sailors died, provided the spark. South Korea blamed the North for the torpedo attack.

'Afterwards, the embassy of (South) Korea recommended to Korean restaurants and tourist agencies not to go to North Korean restaurants,' he told The Phnom Penh Post newspaper.

Pyongyang, which denied any involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan, operates two restaurants in the Cambodian tourist hub of Siem Reap and one in Phnom Penh. They are part of a chain of outlets in a number of countries that earns the communist regime much-needed hard currency.

Patrons at North Korea's diners are treated to dance and music by trusted North Korean waitresses as well as dishes such as Pyongyang cold noodles.

But belligerence on the peninsula - most recently the North's shelling of the South's Yeonpyeong Island in November - saw Park's association distribute signs and stickers to South Korean restaurants in Cambodia condemning Pyongyang's actions.

Two South Korean restaurant owners claimed that 'North Korean agents' then raided their businesses and tore down stickers and signs critical of the Stalinist state.

The North Korean embassy in Phnom Penh was unavailable for comment.

But a spokesman for the South Korean embassy denied Seoul was seeking a boycott of Pyongyang's diners in Cambodia.

'The recent actions, including the boycott of North Korean restaurants, were completely voluntary decisions by the South Korean citizens in Siem Reap to express their regret over the North Korean provocations,' the spokesman said.

Cambodia's Ministry of Tourism said about 290,000 South Koreans visited Cambodia last year - up nearly 50 per cent - making it the industry's second-most important source country.