Near South Korea's highly militarized border with North Korea, Starbucks (SBUX, Financial) has opened a new cafe giving guests a special chance to see the North while sipping their coffee.
About 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of Seoul, in an observatory close to Gimpo, the outlet offers views of Kaepung, a North Korean hamlet just 1.4 kilometers across a river classified as neutral waters. Clear days allow visitors to view the settlement with telescopes.
On Friday, the event attracted hundreds of people anxious to explore the strange surroundings. Though it's in a less guarded region than more well-known border sites like Panmunjom, customers must pass through a military checkpoint to get to the cafe.
Declaring, "This place could now become an important tourist destination for security and peace, seen as young, bright, and warm," Gimpo Mayor Kim Byung-soo hoped the Starbucks would change the image of the area.
Operating almost 2,000 outlets across the nation, Starbucks Korea is run by SCK Company The opening of the cafe coincides with growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula as inter-Korean infrastructure is destroyed and warnings on possible nuclear usage are shared.The two Koreas are still formally at war; the fight of 1953 concluded with an armistice instead of a peace treaty.
