North Korea touts BBQ restaurant boom, but skeptics dismiss it as propaganda

Lee Ae-ran, a North Korean cuisine researcher and owner of Neungra Restaurant who defected from North Korea in 1997, mixes marinated beef in a bowl while preparing bulgogi, a Korean marinated beef dish, at her restaurant in Seoul on Oct. 22. | REUTERS

REUTERS

Nov 2, 2026

SEOUL – North Korea is projecting a new culinary obsession: multi-story barbecue restaurants with waterside terraces, marble tabletops inlaid with grills, and menus featuring beef, pork, and ostrich.

Since September, state media has announced over a dozen new bulgogi restaurants nationwide, a Korean word that usually refers to grilled meat in North Korea.

Dismissed by some as government propaganda, the proliferation is striking in a country that has long struggled to feed its people. The U.N. food body said in its latest report on the country that more than two out of every five North Koreans were undernourished.

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