DPRK blues: Water shortages and going shopping in Pyongyang | NK News
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DPRK blues: Water shortages and going shopping in Pyongyang

Haemaji is full of things that I'd never seen in North Korea: smoked salmon, couscous, and Diet Coke

This is the third part of a weekly series written by a former development worker in North Korea. Read part one here and part two here.

AUGUST 2012

The Bulgarian compound, where I live, was completed in 1988. Apparently, until the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Bulgarian diplomatic mission was huge. The embassy alone is a building of several stories, then there is the former residence of the ambassador, and finally the houses for the diplomatic corps. 16 flats – a lot of people.

Now the Bulgarian mission in Pyongyang is basically a one-man-show, the buildings are rented to