BERLIN // It’s an unusual dilemma for tourists in Berlin to grapple with: will getting into a hostel bunk bed help finance North Korea’s nuclear ambitions?
Backpackers staying at the Cityhostel found themselves struggling with precisely this question after learning that Pyongyang owns the property and is making money from it.
“Oh no, we’re funding the North Korean embassy! We’re sorry. Very sorry,” said British tourist Alex Smith. “We didn’t realise we were funding North Korea.”
Mr Smith blamed his friend and travelling companion for making the “big mistake” of booking a room in the Soviet-style building.
Cityhostel found itself at the centre of a storm after German media reported on Tuesday that the North Korean embassy was not only the guesthouse’s neighbour but also the owner of the prime real estate.
Rented out since 2004, the property brings in about 38,000 euros ($41,000) a month in rent for Pyongyang, the public broadcaster ARD reported.
The German government said on Wednesday that it would shut down the hostel “as quickly as possible” because the site had been leased by Pyongyang in violation of UN rules.
Tougher sanctions implemented last November require UN member states to allow North Korean foreign representations to carry out only diplomatic and consular activities.
“Any kind of commercial activity on the site of the embassy or in relation to the embassy is prohibited,” said German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer. “Cityhostel in Berlin constitutes neither a diplomatic nor consular activity of a North Korean foreign representation.”
Over the past 11 years, the UN Security Council has imposed six sets of sanctions on Pyongyang — two adopted last year — to ramp up pressure and deny the regime hard currency to fund its rocket and atomic programmes.
Cityhostel’s employees said they were unaware of the North Korean link, but would not say more.
The hostel’s management, a Berlin company registered as GBI, issued a statement saying it “regrets having been taken hostage by international politics” and had “frozen rental payments” until further clarification.
Within walking distance of major tourist sites like Checkpoint Charlie and the Brandenburg Gate, Cityhostel Berlin offers dormitory beds for as little as 16 euros ($17) a night.
The hulking grey building that serves as the hostel is separated from the gated North Korean compound by a metal fence.
Canadian traveller Alexandra Brosseau said that he woudn’t have stayed at the hostel if he had known of its North Korean connection.
“It should be written somewhere, like on reviews or something,” she said.
Italian backpacker Emmanuel Giorno, 28, agreed: “Spending money on the North Korean regime really isn’t great.”
Others, like Swiss tourist Diana Vukovic, had a laugh about it.
Nothing in the hostel hinted at its North Korean link, she said, though she conceded that inside, it did feel “a little bit like a prison”.
* Agence France-Presse
