And inside the plush meeting room of their peace secretariat, international envoys would sip tea with S. P.

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We sip our tea and produce an early supper for our brood who, after the initial excitement of departure has died down, are too tired and ravenous to wait.

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For weeks beforehand, men converged every evening to sip sweet tea or coffee laced with cardamom and discuss rival plans to relocate the district library or extend the municipal pier.

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The decorative rice cakes at Jilsiru (Insadong St) are works of art, and turn down the nearby alley to sip quince tea in Yetchatjip, a hobbit-sized teashop echoing with water features, songbirds and gayageum (zither) music.

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But as they sip glasses of sweet cardamom tea, the bucolic bliss is shattered by a large blast in the valley below.

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