There the North Koreas live almost as close as they can be to their home towns from which they fled.
During, and after, the Korean War thousands of the nationals fled and settled on a peninsula on the north coast of South Korea.
It soon became known as “Abai village”, meaning grandfather in in the dialect of the North’s Hamgyong region, where many of them came from.
The dwindling number of first-generation settlers feel a strong connection with the North , where many have families.
Most however, identify as southerners after spending more than half their lives in the South and will cheer on South Korea during the Winter Olympics.
Hwang Seung-Hwan, 81, who arrived as a teenager, said: “We must cheer for our team, because I’m South Korean.”
Many refugees thought they would be able to return to their homes after the war ended, but it ended with an armistice rather than a treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically in a state of war, and the peninsula divided along the 38th Parallel by a demilitarised zone.
The sandy beaches of the little village were even used as the filming location for a popular TV drama, and it has since become a bustling weekend destination for South Koreans.
A fishing village, it has a host of fine sea food restaurants owned by local fishermen.
But with no civilian communications between the two Koreas the villagers have never been able to contact their relatives, let alone visit.
They are hopeful about the tentative thaw in tensions between the North and South that the Olympics has brought.
Dialogue has opened for the first time in years, and the two Koreas agreed to have a combined women’s ice hockey team and to walk together under one flag at the opening ceremony next month..
Twelve North Korean players will join the South’s 23-player squad
The two Koreas have competed as a single nation in sports events before, including football and table tennis matches, but have never joined forces for a major event such as the Olympics or the Asian Games.
The Olympics begin on Thursday, February 8.
The decision to join together as one team has angered many in the South with dozens of demonstrators torching effigies of the North Korea leader when a delegation from the secretive state arrived in South Korea for talks on the Winter Olympics.
But the protests are an indication of discontent in the South, and this unhappiness is likely to cause problems.
Robert A. Manning, resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Express.co.uk: “Public opinion in the South is divided, roughly 50-50.
“This division, these internal tensions and Kim’s unrelenting nuclear ambitions are likely to limit if not unsettle the Olympics thaw, which will be problematic after March in any case, as the US-ROK military exercises will ramp up.”