SEOUL, South Korea — Starbucks, one of the world’s most recognizable, if sometimes annoying, symbols of global capitalism, has a knack for choosing unique places to open coffee shops. A 1,200-year-old castle in Prague is home to one, an ancient former mosque in Cordoba another, and a decommissioned power station in London a third.
The latest venture is a foray into the Cold War’s final frontier — even as tensions between South Korea and its hermetic neighbor to the north have increased in recent years.
Starting Friday, visitors to the Aegibong Peace Ecopark near Gimpo, South Korea, can enjoy views over the demilitarized zone and the North Korean border.
Baek Hea-soon woke up at 4 a.m. Friday and traveled from the nearby city of Gimpo — 30 miles northwest of Seoul — to be one of the first in a line of hundreds outside the coffeehouse’s newest outpost.
“I wish I could share this tasty coffee with the people living right in front of us in North Korea,” Baek, 48, told Reuters as she observed the front lines of a conflict that technically has not yet ended. The two Koreas are still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.
The thirty-seat café opened its doors on Friday and offers its customers in the south a glimpse into the most reclusive country in the world.
The tensions between the two Koreas are clearly visible.
Last month, Pyongyang blew up parts of inter-Korean roads and railways on its side of the border as part of its push to scrap its long-standing goal of unification. North Korea has also sent thousands of balloons tied to bags of trash, old batteries and fertilizer across the border this year, with one landing on Seoul’s presidential compound.
Yet the heavily militarized border bisecting the Korean Peninsula has long been an unlikely draw for foreign and local tourists, and now Gimpo is taking action.
South Korean veterans enjoy a cup of coffee while looking out over North Korea’s Gaepung province.
Together with Starbucks, the city has launched a new public bus line that will take tourists to the park once they pass a military checkpoint.
“People viewed this area near the North Korean border as a dark and gloomy place,” Kim Byung-soo, mayor of Gimpo, told NBC News. “But now… this place could now become a major security tourist destination [and] peace that can be seen as young, bright and warm.”
As the mayor spoke, customers took photos of the Starbucks logo on their mugs against the backdrop of the north. The coffeehouse’s customers can see a North Korean village on Songaksan Mountain, as well as the nature conservation area that houses the civilian DMZ.
An observation deck at a Starbucks in Gimpo, South Korea.
For some customers, enjoying a cup of coffee while looking out over fields and a North Korean village is soothing — even though Kim Jong Un has repeatedly threatened to send nuclear weapons across the border.
“When I have a cup of coffee here, I feel like I can look at North Korea, a nation separated from us, with a little more calm and peace of mind,” 80-year-old Vietnam War veteran Lim Jong-chul told NBC News. . “Before, the concept of safety felt rigid and tense, but now, with this cafe here, it feels more peaceful and comforting.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
