Hacker News Reader

Until 2020 the you could book a stay in a backpacker hostel in Berlin that was actually located inside the North Korean embassy.

Eventually the German government got fed up with them running a business out of their embassy and they had to shut it down.

View on HN

That's incredible. Looks like they leased a building to the hostelers and it was shut down because it violated sanctions, but amazing that the $42,000 a month lease is worth it to dabble in for NK. Then again they were subletting parking spots and rooms previously, perhaps if the order is to milk any property or opportunity overseas it adds up.

> $42,000 a month lease is worth it to dabble in for NK

It's all because the country lacks foreign reserves.

When I visited North Korea years ago the pre-determined hotel, shops, entertainment etc all required USD.

And of course this all predates crypto which has made this trivial.

That’s wild! It’s such a strange setup

Reply on news.ycombinator.com