Coffee drinkers can drink their beverages and view a quiet North Korean mountain village from a new Starbucks at a South Korean border observatory.
To access this unique Starbucks at Aegibong Peace Ecopark, near the South Korean border observatory, patrons must go through a military checkpoint.
Positioned just under a mile from North Korean land, an untouched mountain village unfolds beneath Songaksan mountain in Kaephung county. Its windows and tables are designed to face North Korea, drawing approximately 40 visitors, including a sprinkle of internationals, on its opening day last Friday.
The city of Gimpo hosts the Starbucks, paving the way for tourism development along its border facilities and showcasing it as a symbol of “robust security on the Korean Peninsula through the presence of this iconic capitalist brand.”
Part of Aegibong park, which sits atop a hill that was central to the battles of the Korean War from 1950-53, the observatory is among its prime attractions, alongside gardens, halls for exhibitions and conferences, and a marine war memorial. In attempts similar to Paju and other border locales, Gimpo aims to turn its borderline sites into visitor goldmines amid rising tensions across the Koreas.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been escalating pressure on South Korea, threatening to retaliate with nuclear weapons if provoked. North Korea has also been engaging in psychological and electronic warfare against the South, including sending balloons filled with trash into South Korean territory and disrupting GPS signals near the South’s largest airport.
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Kaephung county is suspected to be one of the launch sites for these thousands of balloons over several months. On Friday, South Korea’s military reported that the North had sent dozens more balloons overnight, with some debris and leaflets landing in and around the capital, Seoul, and the nearby Gyeonggi province.
