A European-style café, called Pyolmuri Café, had its debut June 21 in the center of Pyongyang in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). 

The Pyolmuri Café, started by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), is operating as a Swiss-style bakery shop and Western restaurant, offering 22 bread and bakery products and 35 Western dishes. The restaurant can serve more than 30 customers at a time and includes two private rooms.

The project is linked to ADRA’s bakery in North Korea, which produces more than 11,000 pounds (or five metric tons) of bread rolls and nutritionally-enriched biscuits each day for two school feeding projects.  The projects are in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) and German Agro Action (GAA), a humanitarian aid agency. Profits from the restaurant and café will subsidize the bakery’s costs.

The project, valued at U.S. $80,000, was financed partially by MIGROS, a Swiss retail company, and ADRA Switzerland, with support from the DPRK government.

More than 80 people attended the café‘s opening ceremony, including DPRK government representatives and guests from the United Nations, several foreign embassies, and local non-government organizations.

ADRA established its office in DPRK in June 1999. ADRA currently works in five provinces there, undertaking a range of activities in health care, nutrition, economic development, rural energy and development research.