by REERA YOO | @reeraboo
editor@charactermedia.com
North Korea’s privileged classes apparently have an insatiable appetite for French baguettes, according to Choson Sinbo, a pro-North newspaper based in Japan.
Last year, North Korea’s Kumkop General Foodstuff Factory for Sportspersons sent their pastry chefs to train in France as part of a goal to become a world-class food plant. Choson Sinbo reported that wholewheat baguettes have become incredibly popular in Pyongyang, where it is home to most of North Korea’s elite and educated class.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un paid a visit to the factory last January and told the state-run news agency KCNA that the company should develop and produce varieties of foodstuff, including chewing gum, which is “badly needed by the sportspersons” to recover from fatigue. He also said the newly developed foodstuff should “suit the constitution of Koreans.”
While Pyongyang’s upper class and bureaucrats are feasting on Paris baguettes, two-thirds of the country’s 24 million population struggle to find their next meal. In 2013, the United Nations said over a quarter of all North Korean children are stunted from chronic malnutrition.
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Featured image via Reuters
