By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, who visited Russia earlier this week, is interested in opening a brewery in the country’s Far East, a Russian official said.
Presidential envoy to the region Viktor Ishayev said: “Kim Jong-Il said they were ready to build a brewery here. Baltika (Russia’s top brewery) is working here, we also have Chinese, Japanese and German beer.”
“If there is also Korean beer, nobody will object,” he said.
North Korea has a history of cooperation with foreign states in beer-making.
Its own Taedong River beer was first brewed after Pyongyang purchased the Ushers brewery from Britain in 2000.
Ishayev also said Kim Jong-Il wondered if it was profitable to open Korean restaurants in the Far East, and asked where best to do this. He also discussed opportunities for agricultural cooperation with Russia.
Kim, however, complained about bureaucracy in Russia.
“He said that considering a request or getting an answer to a question took a very long time,” Ishayev said.
Ishayev praised the armoured train in which Kim, who is scared of flying, arrived in Russia.
“You do not feel that you are in an armoured train, it moves very softly. Sometimes it’s hard to understand where the passage from one car to another is,” he said.