Anchor: Around 30 restaurants run by North Korea in foreign countries are said to have either suspended business or closed since tougher UN sanctions were slapped on the North in early March. With business failing, the restaurants are said to be engaging in various illegal activities. 
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report: More than 30 restaurants that North Korea operates in foreign countries are said to have closed due to tougher international sanctions on the North.
 
According to a source familiar with North Korea affairs, roughly 30 out of some 100 restaurants run by the North in China and Southeast Asia have either suspended or discontinued business since fresh UN sanctions were applied on Pyongyang in March.

Among them is “Geumgangsan Seolkyeong” located in Shanghai that closed last month. A North Korean restaurant in Yanji in eastern Jilin province, which was a former workplace of 13 North Korean escapees who recently defected, is also expected to close soon.

More North Korea-owned restaurants are likely to close up shop due to a sharp drop in customers.
 
In a bid to compensate for the losses, the restaurants are said to be engaging in a number of illicit activities, including hiring female minors from North Korea as cocktail waitresses after bringing them under Z-visas for stage performers. 

It has been confirmed that one of eight North Koreans in China holding the performer visa is a minor.
 
To attract local customers, employees in the North-owned restaurants are being forced to take Chinese classes after their work hours that deprive them of getting enough sleep.