Fairy tales overcome nightmares at South Korea’s militarised border town

People look toward a North Korean village through a pair of binoculars at an observation post near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea, July 19, 2017. Picture taken on July 19, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

SEOUL (Reuters) - A half-hour's drive north of Seoul, along a highway lined with barbed wire, lie two shopping malls the size of several football stadiums, a stone's throw from the world's most militarised border.

The malls are in the city of Paju, gateway to the U.N. truce village of Panmunjom, where military officers from the combatants of the 1950-53 Korean war discuss armistice matters -- when the two sides are on speaking terms, which they aren't these days.