Inside the traditional English village just two miles from NORTH KOREA… complete with a pub, red post boxes and views of ‘Stonehenge’
It may have all the hallmarks of a quintessential English country village - but this town is just miles from the most dangerous border in the world
AN ENGLISH boozer, red postboxes, two Beefeaters guarding the city hall, castle walls and a perfect view of Stonehenge can all be found in this town.
Yet this isn’t a village in the Wiltshire countryside - it’s a town on the most dangerous border in the world.
Remarkably, an "English Village" has been built on the border between South and North Korea in a town called Paju, 30 miles north of Seoul.
The model education town is based on everything celebrated in Great Britain, with a local pub that serves fish and chips and warm beer.
It is literally just a mile or two from the mysterious North, where Kim Jong-un rules with an iron fist.
From the top of the English Village, you can see the hillsides of North Korea, and hear the propaganda music blaring out all day long.
Just a few miles north-east is the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) - the 1.25-mile space between the two Asian countries manned by the United Nations, which has been dubbed "the world’s scariest border".
There are said to be over one million landmines planted in the area by Jong-un’s army.
Although it is 5,500 miles away from the relaxing English countryside, the village tries hard to replicate everything Brits know and love, right down to the red phone boxes and British trams, which, of course, never run on time.
There’s also a police station, a hospital infirmary and a Post Office, all quintessentially English, with an immigration office at the entrance, which is offering a "citizenship service".
The village almost feels like home but visitors can still hear Kim Jong-un’s propaganda radio, a reminder of how close they are to a potential nuclear attack.
There are replicas of Beefeaters, castle walls and Tower Bridge, and a huge Stonehenge has been built between the parking spaces.
The "mini-England" - it’s official title is "The Gyeonggi English Village" - is a place where "people can use the English language in a variety of contexts as well as experience English-speaking cultures".
Although tourists come to visit, most English-speaking people come to tutor with over 700 on campus, who help to provide a traditional Brit setting while teaching the Queen’s language to locals.
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The Paju village campus, which measures around 910,000 sq ft, was opened in April 2006 at a cost of around £59.5million.
But in recent years, a lack of numbers means the English Village has had to change and is now being renovated in the hope of enticing more Korean students.
Two other similar English-style villages have opened up in Yangpyeong, west of Seoul, and one closer to the capital city.
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