North Korea deploys a new weapon against the South: Unbearable noise
Published On : 2024-11-17T08:53:32+0530 [ IST ] |
Author : Mayur_Tembhare
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DANGSAN-RI: Loud crackly noises that sounded like an ominous giant gong being beaten again and again washed over this village on a recent night. On other nights some residents described hearing wolves howling, metal grinding together or ghosts screaming as if from a horror movie
Although they heard different sounds at different times people in thisSouthKorean village on the border with North Korea all call themselves victims of "noise bombing," saying they find the relentless barrage exhausting.
It's driving us crazy," said An Mi-hee 37.
Since July North Korea has amped up loudspeakers along its border with South Korea for 10 to 24 hours a day broadcasting eerie noises that have aggravated South Korean villagers like no past propaganda broadcasts from the North ever did
For decades the two Koreas -- which never signed a peace treaty after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce -- have swung between conciliatory tones and saber rattling. Under Kim Pyongyang has veered toward a more hawkish stance over the past few years.
In the South Yoon has also adopted a more confrontational approach since taking office in 2022 and has called for spreading the idea of freedom to the North to penetrate the information blackout Kim relies on to maintain his totalitarian rule.
North Korea strengthened its ties with Russia this year shipping weapons and troops to aid its war against Ukraine and striking a mutual defense pact in the event either is attacked.
The souring of ties is increasingly affecting the lives of people living along the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea where Kim's growing hostilities toward the South have taken the form of noise bombardment.
As she spoke from her living room the distant gong-like sounds outside raged on, the noise appearing to grow louder as the night deepened. "The worst part is that we don't know when it will end, whether it will ever end."
An's village Dangsan has a population of 354, with most residents in their 60s and older. It has been one of the hardest hit by North Korea's psychological warfare. Sitting on the northern shore of Gwanghwa Island west of Seoul it is only a mile from North Korea
"I wish they just broadcast their old insults and propaganda songs," said An Seon-hoe another villager. "At least they were human sounds and we could bear them."
Since the 1960s loudspeakers have been as much a fixture of the DMZ as razor-wire fences and land-mine warning signs. People living along the border endured propaganda broadcasts as a part of frontier life as rival governments switched them on and off depending on the political mood
When they were on both sides insulted each other's leaders as "puppets." A female voice that drifted across the 2.5-mile-wide DMZ beckoned South Korean soldiers to defect to "the people's paradise" in the North. South Korean broadcasts tried to entice
The latest bombardment from the North contains no human sound or music -- just nonstop noises that villagers find hard to describe other than calling them "irritating" and "stressful." They have blamed them for insomnia, headaches and even goats miscarrying
The noise was part of a series of steps North Korea has taken to retaliate against what it called South Korean hostility. Recent events might explain why the sounds have become intolerable
Since his negotiations with President Donald Trump Donald Trump collapsed in 2019 Kim has shifted the course of his country's external relations turning increasingly hostile toward South Korea in particular.
Some analysts say that by raising tensions Kim was building the case for why the next American president needed to engage with him as he seeks an easing of international sanctions in return for agreeing to contain his nuclear program.
But others say Kim's recent rhetoric toward the South reflected a fundamental shift, channeling his belief in the advent of a "neo-cold war."
The catalyst for this change was waves of anti-Kim propaganda leaflets that were sent across the border via balloons by North Korean defectors living in the South. These leaflets called Kim a murderous dictator or "pig" and urged North Koreans
In May North Korea retaliated sending its own balloons to the South loaded with trash in response to what Pyongyang called political "filth" from the South.
Weeks later South Korea ended a six-year hiatus in propaganda broadcasts switching its loudspeakers back on to blast K-pop and news to the North. The North responded with its blasts of strange, nerve-
"North Korea knows its propaganda no longer works on South Koreans," said Kang Dong-wan an expert on North Korea at Dong-A University in the South.
Until inter-Korean tensions caught up with them Dangsan residents were proud of their quiet rural life despite their proximity to the border. They grew red peppers and thick radishes in their gardens. Cats sauntered under persimmon trees strung with heavy fruits. Wild gees
These days however villagers keep their windows shut to minimize the noise from North Korea. Some have installed Styrofoam over them for extra insulation. Children no longer play on outdoor trampolines because of the noise.
Political leaders have visited Dangsan to offer their sympathies. During a parliamentary hearing last month a teary An Mi-hee knelt before lawmakers asking for a solution but officials suggested neither a plan to de-escalate the psychological war with the North nor a solution
The solution is for the two Koreas to recommit themselves to their old agreements not to slander each other, Koh said. But things have only worsened. Last month North Korea demolished all railway and road links between the two Koreas with dynamite.
Residents near the border have grown weary of the ebbs and flows of tensions on the peninsula. An's father An Hyo-cheol, 67, the village chief of Dangsan, urged the South Korean government to stop what some villagers called a "childish"
Dangsan residents said they were being sacrificed in the uncompromising political rivalry between the two Koreas.
"The government has abandoned us because we are small in number and mostly old people," Park Hae-sook said. "I can't imagine the government doing nothing if Seoul suffered the same noise attack as
Shortly after she spoke the afternoon offensive started with faint metallic howls coming across the border.
Source : Reporters From Sunrise Chronicles
Tags : South Koreans , He , North , Dong , Russia , Park Hae , Koh Yu , Complicating , Last , People ,
Summary :
DANGSAN-RI: Loud crackly noises that sounded like an ominous giant gong being beaten again and again washed over this village on a recent night. On other nights some residents described hearing wol
