Starbucks opens shop overlooking Korean DMZ
SEOUL, South Korea — Starbucks, one of the world’s most recognizable, if sometimes tedious, symbols of global capitalism, has a knack for choosing unique spots to open coffee shops. A 1,200-year-old castle in Prague houses one, an ancient former mosque in Cordoba another, and a decommissioned power station in London a third.
Its latest new venture is a foray into the last frontier of the Cold War — even as tensions between South Korea and its hermetic neighbor to the north have risen in recent years.
As of Friday, visitors to Aegibong Peace Ecopark near Gimpo, South Korea, can take in the views across the demilitarized zone and the North Korean border.
Baek Hea-soon woke up at 4 a.m. on 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 latest outpost.
“I wish I could share this tasty coffee with the people living in North Korea right in front of us,” Baek, 48, told Reuters, as she observed the front line of a conflict that has technically not ended. The two Koreas are still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Tensions between the two Koreas are clear to see.
Last month, Pyongyang blew up sections of inter-Korean roads and rail lines on its side of the border as part of its push to scrap its long-standing goal of unification. North Korea has also this year sent thousands of balloons attached to bags of trash, old batteries and manure across the border, with one landing in Seoul’s presidential compound.
Still, the heavily militarized border that bisects the Korean peninsula has long been an unlikely draw for foreign and local tourists, and now Gimpo is getting in on the action.
Along with the Starbucks, the city has launched a new public bus line that will take tourists to the park, once they have passed through a military checkpoint.
“People used to think of 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 an important tourist destination for security [and] peace that can be seen as young, bright and warm.”
As the mayor spoke, customers took pictures of the Starbucks logo on their mugs against the backdrop of the north. The coffeehouse’s patrons can see a North Korean village on Songaksan Mountain, as well as the environmental preservation area that the civilian-free DMZ is home to.
For some customers, enjoying a cup of joe while overlooking fields and a North Korean village is calming — even if Kim Jong Un has repeatedly threatened to send nuclear weapons across the border.
“Having a cup of coffee here, I feel like I can look at North Korea, a nation divided from us, with a bit more calm and peace of mind,” 80-year-old Vietnam War veteran Lim Jong-chul told NBC News. “Before, the concept of security felt rigid and tense, but now, with this cafe here, it feels more peaceful and reassuring.”
