North Korean Officials Shut Down ‘Cheap Beer’ Brewery

We have a lot of faith in beer as a political peacemaker, but North Korea might prove to be the exception. Just ask Harry Kim, a Chinese citizen of Korean descent who invested $32,000 to set up a brewery in North Korea — only to be shut down when North Korean officials refused to approve the project.

The entire country of North Korea has fewer than a dozen breweries, which makes beer a popular but expensive luxury. Kim’s plan to introduce cheap beer was so popular that employees were willing to go without sleep to make it happen — when power cuts made it impossible to electronically monitor the brewing process, employees “got chairs and sat there looking at gauges, not sleeping, one person at each position.”

Although Kim’s brewery was a success, North Korean officials never gave him permission to expand and Kim “eventually gave up” and returned to China. Here’s hoping that Kim’s brewery attempt won’t be the last, and that North Korean officials will see that locally brewed beer is a pretty great way to achieve national unity. Or at least to take the edge off of those nuclear war threats. Just a thought.

H/T NY Times + PicThx Kim Jong Il Looking At Things