North Korea has found a formidable new weapon against the South Koreans… noise pollution

Gunshots, sinister laughter, ghostly howls… The noises broadcast by North Korea from loudspeakers on its border are chilling the blood of the inhabitants of the island of Ganghwa-gun, located in the northwest of the South Korea. Separated by the Han River estuary, Ganghwa was until now best known for its landscapes of mountains, rice fields and small villages. “Usually, we enjoyed the peaceful sounds of nature, the singing of insects and birds since we live at the foot of the mountain. But today these sounds have been drowned out and all we hear is this noiset,” Kim Yun-suk toldAFP.

A simple North Korean response

It all started when Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, had the idea of ​​sending thousands of balloons filled with garbage south last June. Seoul, the southern capital, then responded by broadcasting international information from its army as well as k-pop music, very popular at home, through loudspeakers placed along its border. An idea that North Korea could not support, now determined to make life hell for the border residents of the neighboring country. “Our children can’t sleep either. They develop canker sores, they fall asleep at school and they take a nap on the bus to school. This is the current situation, and I find myself taking headache medication almost all the time», over An Mi-hee. «I would have preferred a flood, a fire or even an earthquake, because for these events you always know that you will eventually recover.», Adds the island resident.

For Park Heung-yeol, municipal councilor of Ganghwa, “This is not simple propaganda from the regime. This is really meant to torment people“. Some, on the other hand, speculate that North Korea is in fact seeking to drown out sound propaganda coming from the south, fearing that it will incite its troops to defect. Residents are now demanding a political solution to the problem, but nothing has yet been done.