The capital of North Korea boasts a new elegant and very expensive shopping mall, which offers a select clientele Western and South Korean luxury brands at prohibitive prices. The Haedanghwa complex houses not only the huge and exclusive shopping centre, but also restaurants, cafes, beauty salons, a swimming pool and a sauna. Journalist Du Baiyu, correspondent in Pyongyang for the Chinese news agency Xinhua, compares the atmosphere at Haedanghwa to that of the more elegant districts of Beijing or Shanghai, and observes how easy it is to meet walking around the center commercial – despite the always crowded prices – types that wouldn't be out of place in a trendy club in the Chinese capital.
The opening of Haedanghwa has unleashed a war of luxury in the shadow of the austere Soviet-style buildings: the Taedonggang Diplomatic Club, until recently a bastion of North Korean opulence, previously reserved for a very small international elite , has launched a desperate campaign to win back customers. However striking, the cases of the Haedanghwa and the Taedonggang Diplomatic Club are not isolated, in the last year the Changchon district in Pyongyang, also called "North Korea's Manhattan" or "little Dubai", has witnessed a real invasion of restaurants and shops aimed at wealthy customers, where it is possible to pay both in the local currency – the North Korean won – and in dollars. However, all this only represents one of the two faces of the metropolis: with an economy on the verge of collapse due to international isolation, the lack of infrastructure and the insufficiency of the productive sector, the majority of the population struggles to survive, hoping to find those basic necessities in state-owned stores that would be too expensive to buy elsewhere. To get an idea of the distance between the two souls of the capital, just think that if an average salary amounts to 3000 won a month, a plate of bibimbap (Korean dish of rice, vegetables and eggs) in a luxury restaurant costs 8000 .
Attachments: The Chosun Ilbo – Chinese Correspondent Baffled by Pyongyang High Life
