Coffee with a view? Starbucks opens restaurant with a glimpse into Hermit Kingdom

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) has opened a new restaurant in South Korea that gives customers a unique vantage point of its neighbor to the north.

On Friday, Starbucks (SBUX) welcomed guests to its Gimpo observatory restaurant, located 31 miles northwest of Seoul and less than a mile away from the Demilitarized Zone that separates South Korea from communist North Korea.

A neutral river runs between the Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo and the North Korean border town of Kaepung. The border is so close that customers at the Starbucks restaurant can see residents of Kaepung on a clear day through the observatory’s telescopes. Customers must first clear a military checkpoint before entering the observatory.

With increased tensions between the two Koreas, the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea has drawn tourists to border towns in the South eager to get a glimpse of the reclusive and authoritarian state.