In one corner, the Netherlands: a country where the “safeguarding of fundamental human rights and freedoms” is codified in the nation’s charter. In the other, North Korea: a plein-air prison, ruled for three generations by a despotic family diametrically opposed to virtually everything the Netherlands stands for.

So, what’s a restaurant backed by the North Korean regime doing in the middle of Amsterdam?

Opened this past December, the Haedanghwa restaurant is on the ground floor of a historic building that, until recently, was a branch of ABN-Amro bank. The eatery is part of a larger corporation called the Haedanghwa Group,