S. KOREA: South Korea markets demilitarized zone bottled water

Published: 2009/12/10 16:49:19 GMT

Designer water connoisseurs can try a new tipple, directly sourced from the military zone between the two Koreas.

The water is called DMZ 2km and is bottled near the buffer zone separating North and South Korea.

It comes from an area unspoilt for decades, enclosed by razor wire fences, filled with land mines and monitored by more than one million armed soldiers.

The zone is a wildlife haven but also boasts one of the world's largest concentrations of weapons.

In spite of its name, the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) is the world's most heavily armed frontier.

It is a 4km (2.5-mile) thick ribbon that has divided the Korean peninsula since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The two Koreas are still technically at war.

But the makers of the drink hope it will appeal to those who do not think of the area in geo-political terms.

"We decided on water from the DMZ because it's different, and the environment there is untouched, so many people thinks it's clean," brand spokesman Lee Sang-hyo says.

The bottler draws the water from a plant close to the South Korean end of the DMZ, from a spring that flows directly under it.

"Getting the water is not dangerous at all. We worked it all out with the military," Mr Lee added.

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