Image: NK News (Nov. 2024)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
SEOUL (Worthy News) – One may be forgiven for thinking twice about enjoying a coffee here. Yet a South Korean border observatory overseeing a quiet North Korean mountain village was precisely where the Starbucks coffee chain decided to open an outlet on Friday.
Customers must pass a military checkpoint before entering the observatory at Aegibong Peace Ecopark. The observatory is less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from North Korean territory and overlooks North Korea’s Songaksan mountain and a nearby village in Kaephung County.
The tables and windows face North Korea at the Starbucks, where about 40 people, a few of them foreigners, came to the opening Friday, reporters witnessed.
The South Korean city of Gimpo said hosting Starbucks was part of efforts to develop its border facilities as a tourist destination and said the shop symbolizes “robust security on the Korean Peninsula through the presence of this iconic capitalist brand.”
It came amid mounting tensions with South Korea’s military, saying Friday that the autocratic North flew “dozens more balloons” overnight and that some trash and leaflets landed around the capital, Seoul, and nearby Gyeonggi province.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had earlier been trying to raise pressure on South Korea and threatening to attack his rival with nuclear weapons if provoked.
North Korea has also engaged in psychological and electronic warfare against South Korea, such as flying trash-laden balloons into the South and disrupting Global Positioning System signals from border areas near the South’s biggest airport.
Kaephung County is believed to be one of the possible sites from where North Korea has launched thousands of balloons over several months.
South Korea’s military said Friday that the North flew dozens more balloons overnight and that some trash and leaflets landed around the capital, Seoul, and nearby Gyeonggi province.
Yet the coffee aroma at Starbucks provided perhaps a brief respite from what is one of the world’s most militarized zones.
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