Starbucks offers glimpse of North Korean life from new cafe

The observatory site, originally known as Hill 154, holds historical significance as a place where the two countries fought fiercely during the 1950-53 Korean War.

For anyone curious about civilian life in North Korea, Starbucks is offering its customers in the south a peek into the world’s most reclusive country while sipping a favourite brew.

Starbucks Coffee Korea Co’s new riverbank cafe at an observatory tower in South Korea’s Gimpo city promises coffee aficionados a chance to “gaze” at normal village life in Gaepung county across the border, the invite to the event from the city government said. The observatory site, originally known as Hill 154, holds historical significance as a place where the two countries fought fiercely during the 1950-53 Korean War.

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Visitors look out from an observation deck at a Starbucks Coffee Korea Co store, with views of North Korea’s Gaepung County, at the Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo, South Korea, on Friday, 29 November, 2024. The 30-seater cafe opened Friday, offering its customers in the south a peek into the world’s most reclusive country while sipping a favourite brew.

The county in the north mainly consists of homes and some farms, though as a border region may also have a military presence. The riverbank in North Korea is more than a mile (1.6 kilometres) away from the Starbucks outlet, which means visitors may need binoculars or long-range lenses to see what’s going on in the neighbouring country.

North Korea’s military might is occasionally on display through its missile launches and other choreographed events. But it’s the life of ordinary North Koreans that is still shrouded in mystery and draws many to the hermit kingdom. While Pyongyang is opening its borders for general tourism in December for the first time since the pandemic, such tours are tightly controlled, and many foreign nationals are barred.

The 30-seater cafe opens Friday at the observatory tower of the Aegibong Peace Ecopark, giving coffee drinkers a panoramic view of Jogang river which separates the two nations, the invite said. It’s part of the city’s plans to turn Aegibong into a global tourist attraction, by leveraging on its historic and strategic importance during the Korean War. Some 135 514 people have visited the park in the first 10 months of this year, up 24% from the year-ago period.

Starbucks Korea, which is majority owned by E-Mart a unit of Korea’s retail giant Shinsegae Group, declined to comment. The company chose the site because of its historic significance and scenery, a spokesperson for the Gimpo city government said in an email to Bloomberg News, adding Starbucks is the only food and beverage company to operate at that site.

But even this serene ecological park is not untouched by the hostility between the two countries.

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Nearly a decade ago, South Korea demolished a Christmas tower at Aegibong, which North Korea then described as a form of psychological warfare. Last year, however, the South reinstated a large-scale lighting event in the shape of a Christmas tree at Aegibong.

The opening of the cafe comes amid rising tensions between the two countries. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been pushing to sunder ties with his neighbour, ruling out the possibility of a peaceful unification. In recent weeks, Kim’s regime has blown up parts of road and rail links connecting the two countries and sent thousands of balloons containing wastepaper and cigarette butts. Pyongyang has also angered South Korea and its allies by dispatching troops to Russia to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

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