This was pointed out to us by Hamel, who 6 months ago guest blogged about Pyongyang's first foray into the European restaurant scene. Well, it turns out the Noord-Koreaans restaurant failliet. Accusations and counter-accusations abound: the Dutch partner says the restaurant was drained of money by the Koreans so they could start over without him, the Koreans say the Dutch guy didn't pay his share, including wages. Indeed, a court ruled yesterday that the employees are owed payment by the Dutch company.
Whatever the cause of this messy divorce, we're going to go ahead and make a lazy joke suggesting that the Dutch partners were too high to run a business. Wait, no we won't.
In a more significant conflict, JVIC responded to charges recently made by a Chinese mining company that North Korea had illegally kicked it out of the country and broken their contract. It was unusual for Xiyang - the Chinese company - to so publically air its greivences in the first place, especially while criticizing its own government's Korea-policy. For North Korea to respond is also highly unusual. Disputes like this should be resolved in international, public fora - hopefully soon it will be through arbitration rather than the media.
H/T to Hamel.