The store is full of Japanese! Now a popular spot for travel in South Korea… “Starbucks closest to North Korea” – after the astonishing
About 1.4 km from North Korea, the much talked about “Starbucks” opened last November…
In January of this year (2013), the author visited the “Starbucks closest to North Korea” in South Korea and introduced the situation there in an article in FRIDAY Digital. I had a chance to visit that “Starbucks” store again half a year later, and then I witnessed a different situation from before.
The Starbucks Gimpo Aigibong Ecological Park near Seoul, South Korea, is the closest store to the military border between South and North Korea. Across the river in the neutral zone from the observatory where this store is located is North Korean territory, a distance of only 1.4 km.
Japanese” signs at the local ticket booths…
When the Starbucks opened last November 2012, it was a big topic of conversation at the time that “you can see North Korea from Starbucks. When I visited two months later, even on a weekday, there were many visitors from the morning, most of them Koreans, and almost all of them had come by private car. I took a cab from the nearest subway station on the way there, and on the way back, I walked about 1 to 2 km and managed to take a local bus without a cab coming, but there were no such visitors.
This time, he took the same route and went by cab again on the way there. The park entrance was the same with the Korean Marines with guns in their hands, but the location of the ticket office had changed slightly and there was “Japanese” information, which was not there before.
Admission to the park is the same as before, 3,000 won (approx. 300 yen) per adult, and reservations can be made in advance on the park’s official website, but it is difficult for Japanese travelers to make reservations in person because a Korean cell phone number and a Korean-issued credit card are still required, among other things. Therefore, again this time, we presented our passports at the counter and purchased tickets for two people with WOWPASS, a cashless card exclusively for foreigners that had been charged in advance. There was no one on the way to North Korea, but on the way back, I saw a group of Japanese purchasing tickets here.
‘I can’t speak Korean or English, but I’m here.’…what’s the tour fare?
And when we arrived at the observatory and entered the Starbucks store, we were surprised to see that most of the customers were Japanese and Taiwanese. They were ordering drinks and food using the smartphone translation app in their hands.
As I gazed at the North Korean village from the observation deck, I could hear Japanese behind me. Many Japanese people with tour plates around their necks walked up to us, and when we approached one of them, a young woman, in Japanese, she said, “I came here on a tour from the center of Seoul.
When I asked further about the cost, she said, “About 7,000 yen. She spoke neither Korean nor English at all, but she had heard about this Starbucks on SNS and joined the tour because it was available. There was also a Japanese father and son with a small child of 2 or 3 years old. They came in a large bus with a tour guide who spoke fluent Japanese.
The number of tours that come up when searching the Internet is astonishing!
As of September ’25, a search on the Internet for “Starbucks with a view of North Korea,” “tour,” and “Japanese” turned up a huge number of tours. For example, half-day tours that visit from central Seoul start at about 6,000 yen per person. For example, a half-day tour from the center of Seoul starts at about 6,000 yen per person, while an English-language tour costs around 4,000 yen per person.
Incidentally, in January of this year, there were almost no tours available, and we had no choice but to go on our own. There were websites that sold chartered tours with a guide and car for 15,000 to 20,000 yen per person.
Compared to six months ago, I realized that it was much cheaper and easier to go there. This is probably due to the introduction of Japanese-language accounts on Instagram and YouTube in the past six months alone. In addition, the “Panmunjom Tour,” which has long been popular among Japanese tourists, has now been cancelled due to concerns over military provocations by North Korea, and it is thought that these tour companies have joined the “Starbucks closest to North Korea” tour in place of a visit to Panmunjom.
On the way back to the bus station, I tried to walk to the bus stop as before, but it was too hot and I called a cab, but it did not come.
The cost this time was about 2,000 yen per person from the center of Seoul, so it was still cheaper to go on my own. However, considering the time required to transfer between the subway and bus, and the risk of having to purchase tickets on the day of the tour since they cannot be reserved in advance, it would be wise to take a tour now that the number of tours is already in a state of flux and prices are falling.
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Interview, text, and photographs： Aki Shikama
