Starbucks in South Korea offers a view to a North Korean village [Video]

SEOUL, South Korea –

Coffee drinkers can sip their beverages and view a quiet North Korean mountain village from a new Starbucks at a South Korean border observatory.

Customers have to pass a military checkpoint before entering the observatory at Aegibong Peace Ecopark, which is less than a mile 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.

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.”

The observatory is the key facility at Aegibong park, which was built on a hill that was a fierce battle site during the …