South Korea ? A South Korean businessman plans to begin a fried chicken delivery service in North Korea, believed to be the first foreign-run restaurant in a country that struggles to feed its own people.

Choi Won-ho, head of a fried chicken franchiser that has about 70 shops across South Korea, said Friday he is opening a 50-table chicken restaurant in Pyongyang on Nov. 15 that also would deliver chicken and beer to homes by phone order.

“I don’t think that I’m going to lose money at all,” Choi said by telephone, laughing off concerns that his venture may be too risky in the impoverished country of 23 million, where the elite citizens of the capital are much better off than others.

It will be the first foreign-run restaurant in North Korea, according to an official of South Korea’s Unification Ministry who spoke on customary condition of anonymity citing office policy.