Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumNorth Korea reportedly wants a McDonald's. That could be a pretty big deal.
Source: Washington Post
By Caitlin Dewey
June 2
It is little more than a footnote in the back-and-forth over the planned North Korea summit but the rumor of a McDonalds in Pyongyang is juicier than a three-patty Big Mac.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may allow a Western hamburger franchise into the country as a show of goodwill to the United States, according to an intelligence report described by U.S. officials to NBC. That follows remarks by South Korean adviser Chung-in Moon in late April, who said that North Korea might be interested in welcoming a McDonalds as tensions ease.
Compared to the threat of nuclear war, of course, a Pyongyang McDonalds seems like small fries. But experts and history suggest theres more at play here than one token franchise.
McDonalds has long been seen as a symbol of Western culture and capitalism particularly in communist countries. And its expansion into China and Russia was seen as a landmark in the 1990s.
This has happened with a number of different communist cultures, said Jenny Town, a research analyst at the Stimson Center and the managing editor of 38 North, an academic news site about North Korea. Once they start to get different points of contact with the West, it changes their views and it usually starts with McDonalds or Coca-Cola.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/02/north-korea-reportedly-wants-a-mcdonalds-that-could-be-a-pretty-big-deal/
dameatball
(7,398 posts)Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)For what you wish for. You might just get it.
doc03
(35,340 posts)nukes for a McDonalds.
soryang
(3,299 posts)Bloomberg just recently published Moon's economic plans for North Korea. It's a lot more significant than the stories about McDonalds in Pyongyang. Moon's plan was published by A Channel about the time of Moon's second summit with Kim Jong Un, and was basically ignored here in the US in preference for the McDonalds tale that Trump was going to concede all to North Korea in return for a McDonald's franchise in Pyongyang. Nations in the far east have far more substantial plans for capital investment in economic infrastructure.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-03/these-maps-show-how-to-unlock-north-korea-s-economy
There is, by the way, already one fake "mcdonalds" shop in Pyongyang. I saw it on a S.Korean broadcast weeks ago.