Starbucks serves South Koreans coffee and glimpse into the North

29/11/2024 18:08

        The world's last Cold War frontier now has a Starbucks cafe in South Korea where customers can get a glimpse through the heavily militarised border into the North, all while sipping a latte.
        
        Hundreds showed up on Friday for the opening of the U.S. coffeehouse chain's newest store in an observatory near the city of Gimpo, around 50 km northwest of Seoul and close to the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.
        
        The DMZ has become an unlikely draw for foreign and local tourists, despite a spike in tensions on the Korean peninsula in recent years.
        
        Visitors must pass through a military checkpoint on the way to the Starbucks outlet, although it is in a lesser known and less militarised than more popular tourist spots along the border such as the Panmunjom truce village.
        
        A river designated as "neutral waters" runs between the observatory and the border town of Kaepung in the North just 1.4 km away. On a clear day, North Korean villagers can be seen from the observatory through its telescopes.
        
        The two Koreas are still technically at war after a three-year conflict ended in a 1953 armistice. A peace treaty has never been signed.