Chillin' at a North Korean karaoke
bar By Sunny Lee
BEIJING - "Here is the gentleman's rule.
You can watch the girl, but you're not allowed to
touch the girl." That was the simple introduction
a manager at a table-dance bar in the French
Quarter, the famous nightlife district in New
Orleans, once told a curious reporter.
The
same "gentleman's rule" applies in a North Korean
karaoke bar where North Korean girls accompany
guests for drinking, singing and dancing. For the
majority of readers who cannot afford to travel to
the remote country, do not not despair. The North
Korean leadership generously allowed some such
installments in the neighboring China. So, drop by
sometime. And when you come, make sure you behave
like a gentleman. But where are the
North
Korean karaoke bars?
North Korean
restaurants in China are often a sought-after
destination by foreigners who want to have a
"bite" of the reclusive country, while unable to
visit there physically. They enter North Korean
restaurants in China as if they enter a secretive
treasure island. They are curious about North
Korean food and order some cuisine, such as
Pyongyang cold noodle. But they are invariably
more curious about the workers they see there who
are all beautiful waitresses busily shuttling food
back and forth. Some foreign guests want to
capture this rare chance of meeting North Koreans
by taking pictures with these waitresses who all
wear conspicuous North Korean flag insignia on
their uniform, which makes the photo-op all the
more memorable.
But what most of these
foreign guests don't know is that that's not the
end of the service these restaurants offer. When
the dusk and hush of night sets in, some of these
restaurants metamorphose into a karaoke bar. In
the less visible corners or upstairs of the
restaurant, there are private rooms where one can
have a more "up-close and personal encounter" with
North Korean beauties. Of course, atmosphere and
styles vary, depending on which place you go.
One of them is located in the "Korean
Town" section of China's capital city. It's a
relatively small one. But among those who are in
the know, this place is counted as the best in
town.
"This is a place where we can enjoy
light conversations," said a businessman as we
were sitting down in a room of the karaoke bar.
That was another way for him to say that these
rooms were all bugged so we'd better be mindful -
not to talk about "heavy" topics such as politics.
The room looks like a typical karaoke
room. There are comfy cushions with a table in the
center. On the one side of the room, there is a
big TV screen with a karaoke machine. There is
also a switch on the wall that can make the room
light dimmer, to meet the "needs" of the customer.
Soon, two North Korean girls entered the
room. One is Park Hee-kyung and the other is Kim
Ju-myung (not real names), both of them in their
early 20s. They sat down next to us, but not as
closely as you might be erroneously visualizing in
your head. They were well trained for such an
occasion. And they knew that it's polite to give
the two gentlemen in the room some space for
themselves. Park and Kim gently poured the
imported Pyongyang wine into our glasses and
served fruit on our plates.
We took turns
to sing. The North Korean ladies were amazing.
They knew most of the very popular South Korean
songs, even requested some for us to sing. They
also sang Chinese songs as well as North Korean
ones. Kim was apparently so good at music that she
was adding soprano chord to the businessman's
voice, creating a beautiful duet. But the
highlight of the night came when one of them,
Park, played violin to the theme song of the movie
Titanic.
When later the girls were
out of the room for a few minutes, the businessman
said, "These girls are all specially selected
people from North Korea. They are very exquisite
and well-trained. I like brining my business
clients here once in a while because of their
top-quality service. Besides, they understand your
jokes and make intelligent responses. It's a
rarity in karaoke girls."
The businessman
later got into a sort of a word scrimmage with
Park when he said, "Your biolin sound is so good."
"It's violin," Park corrected the businessman's
pronunciation by exaggerating the "v" sound. "Ah,
yeah, violin, not biolin," the businessman
replied. Strangely, that created a rapport between
the two.
Throughout their interaction, the
businessman was addressing Park and Kim with
honorific terms. The Korean language is
notoriously complicated. Depending on the other
party's age, there are different ways of
addressing the other. If the other party is older
than you, one is expected to use honorific terms.
If the other person is younger than you, yet when
you two are in a formal relationship, then you are
also expected to address the other person in
honorific terms to show respect. In addition to
using the honorific terms, the businessman was
also feigning his intonation slightly closer to
the North Korean accent.
Later, when this
observation was brought up to him, the businessman
said: "You don't have to butter them up. But when
you let them know you treat them with respect,
they get disarmed and they will reveal their more
human side. Eventually, you'll enjoy your time
here. Respect is the most powerful weapon to
disarm people," he said.
There were times
years back when South Koreans travelling abroad
avoided North Korean restaurants or even ran way
from them for fear of the possibility of being
kidnapped by North Korean agents. Now, years
later, South Koreans make up the largest customer
group to visit North Korean restaurants. In China,
for example, as much as 80% of all customers to
North Korean restaurants are South Korean
tourists.
North Korea has some 100
restaurants overseas, mostly in China and
Southeast Asia, including Laos, Vietnam and
Cambodia. These restaurants serve as an important
revenue pipeline for earning foreign currencies
for Pyongyang. Each overseas North Korean
restaurant is said to be allotted a revenue quota
to fill, ranging from US$100,000 to $300,000 a
year to send to Pyongyang, which makes the total
revenue estimation some tens of millions of
dollars.
The business formula - restaurant
by day and karaoke bar by night - is also seen as
an effort for these restaurants to meet the
assigned financial quota. Currently, there are
scores of North Korean restaurants in China,
including in cities such as Beijing, Tianjin,
Tsingdao, Dandong and Yanji. Beijing has 11 North
Korean restaurants. All of these employ North
Koreans whose total employment number in China is
estimated to be several hundred.
The
reason that North Korean restaurants are expensive
yet remain popular among customers is their
immaculate service from beautiful employees. In
China, where service quality at restaurants is
often unsatisfactory, North Korean restaurants are
becoming a favorite alternative among members of
the businesses community. The businessman
said, "You see? The waitresses working here can
all speak two foreign languages: English and
Chinese. They sing and dance professionally. They
are all graduates of top universities in
Pyongyang. When you make a joke, they can
intelligently strike back with a punch line and
often with a good sense of humor. They are not
like other karaoke girls."
He continued,
"But what they end up doing is working at a
karaoke bar in a foreign country like this one.
Can you imagine a female graduate of Seoul
National University [South Korea's top university]
working in a place like this? This is very sad."
The night was still young, so we thought.
But the clock was already pointing to 2am. We said
our good-byes to the two gorgeous North Korean
comrades. As we were walking towards the main exit
door, the 21-year-old Park came out to make a
farewell gesture to the businessman once more.
Although she had only drunk some fruit juice that
night, her face was flushed.
"I think she
really likes you," I half-jokingly said to the
businessman. He didn't reply, but said, "Beijing
is already a very free city compared to Pyongyang.
Once they taste freedom, it will change them. They
won't remain the same people."
Sunny
Lee is a writer based in Beijing, where he has
lived for five years. A native of South Korea, Lee
is a graduate of Harvard University and Beijing
Foreign Studies University.
(Copyright
2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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