N.K. chief orders foreign foods be called by original names

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has ordered that the country’s people call foreign foods, such as hamburgers and waffles, by the names used in the countries of origin, rather than coining new Korean terms for them, a source said Sunday.

Under the instruction, North Koreans will no longer refer to a hamburger using the Korean term meaning “double bread with minced meat” and a waffle as “roasted bread cake,” the source said. Kim issued the instruction during a visit to street stands selling such foreign foods, according to the source.

It was unclear when the instruction was issued.

“There are six fast food-selling stands on the streets of Pyongyang,” the source said, adding that the North’s leader also ordered the establishment of such stands during a visit to an amusement park in Pyongyang in December 2009.

The Choson Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan, recently carried an article calling hamburgers, waffles and hot dogs as they are called overseas, instead of their Korean names, saying that citizens in Pyongyang enjoy such fast foods at street stands during lunch time. (Yonhap News)