Pizzas, pastas on Pyongyang plates

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has ordered the opening of the isolated country's first Italian restaurant, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper reported.

Kim - a reputed gourmand - sent North Korean cooks to Naples and Rome last year to learn how to reproduce authentic Italian pizza and pasta after "repeated trial and error", the newspaper said on Saturday, citing a restaurant manager.

"Our people should be also allowed to enjoy the world-famous food," the manager of the Pyongyang eatery quoted Kim as saying, according to the Tokyo-based Choson Sinbo newspaper. The newspaper said the North's government buys wheat flour, butter and cheese from Italy for the restaurant.