North Korean dish turns instant hit

At Seoul’s Nampo Myeonok noodle bar, the owner was rushed off her feet, shouting at a long queue of hungry punters that she was clean out of “Pyongyang naengmyeon”.

“You’ll have to wait around 40 minutes” for the broth to boil, she told the line snaking out of her door on Saturday.

Demand for North Korea’s signature dish peaked all over the South’s capital after it was featured on the menu at Friday’s historic inter-Korean summit and became a surprise talking point.

A cold noodle dish served in a cool mild broth, “Pyongyang naengmyeon” is usually garnished with pieces of meat and vegetables.

The long buckwheat noodle strands are usually cut with a pair of scissors to simplify the eating process.

The dish is already popular in the South but many saw the summit as a good excuse to indulge.

Social media trend

Thousands posted photos of the noodles they slurped down for lunch on Instagram with hashtags including #summit and #peacenaengmyeon.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un provoked laughter at the summit and among South Korean journalists at a press centre when he cracked jokes about the dish, hoping that the South’s President Moon Jae-in “will be able to enjoy the Pyongyang naengmyeon that has travelled far”. The noodles — a special request by Mr. Moon — had been crafted by a leading chef from Okryu-gwan, a famed restaurant in Pyongyang.