A battle of sounds stops on the inter-Korean border : NPR

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Anthony Wallace/AFP through Getty Pictures GANGHWA, South Korea — Kim Okay-soon used to take bike rides alongside a waterfront highway close to her house along with her grandchildren after dinner.

The highway in her farming village of Dangsan-ri in Ganghwa Island appears over rice paddies to 1 aspect that appeal to long-legged birds and mirror the moon at night time.

<source srcset="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4672x4672+110+0/resize/100/quality/85/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F54%2F46%2F1ca82c1049efb8a35b81b4a82740%2Fdsc02476-enhanced-nr.jpg" data-original="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4672x4672+110+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F54%2F46%2F1ca82c1049efb8a35b81b4a82740%2Fdsc02476-enhanced-nr.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4672x4672+110+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F54%2F46%2F1ca82c1049efb8a35b81b4a82740%2Fdsc02476-enhanced-nr.jpg" data-format="webp" class="img lazyOnLoad" type="image/webp"/><source srcset="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4672x4672+110+0/resize/100/quality/85/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F54%2F46%2F1ca82c1049efb8a35b81b4a82740%2Fdsc02476-enhanced-nr.jpg" data-original="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4672x4672+110+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F54%2F46%2F1ca82c1049efb8a35b81b4a82740%2Fdsc02476-enhanced-nr.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4672x4672+110+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F54%2F46%2F1ca82c1049efb8a35b81b4a82740%2Fdsc02476-enhanced-nr.jpg" data-format="jpeg" class="img lazyOnLoad" type="image/jpeg"/><img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4672x4672+110+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F54%2F46%2F1ca82c1049efb8a35b81b4a82740%2Fdsc02476-enhanced-nr.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4672x4672+110+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F54%2F46%2F1ca82c1049efb8a35b81b4a82740%2Fdsc02476-enhanced-nr.jpg" data-format="jpeg" class="img lazyOnLoad" alt="Ukraine's special forces found documents, military tickets, notes, phones and equipment early this year on the bodies of North Korean soldiers killed in Kursk, a Russian region that borders Ukraine." loading="lazy"/> The opposite aspect, towards the Han River estuary, is lined with fences and occasional navy guard posts. Simply over a mile past is North Korea.

One night final July, Kim says a mix of noises she describes as "ghostly sounds, raven sounds, wolf sounds" began blaring towards the village, from a loudspeaker atop a hill throughout the river.

"It was so scary we could not go outdoors," Kim says. "Our on a regular basis life was shattered."

A couple of month earlier, South Korea had began blasting propaganda broadcasts from its loudspeakers alongside the inter-Korean border. And North Korea was now reciprocating.

The loudspeaker battle continued for a 12 months. Villagers of Dangsan-ri and different border cities needed to stay with unnerving noises day and night time.

Then, final week, the brand new South Korean president, Lee Jae Myung, ordered a cease to South Korea's broadcasts. North Korea returned the favor inside hours, stopping its personal blasting of sounds throughout the border.

Lee has pledged to pursue peace with the North by dialogue and cooperation. The choice to show off loudspeakers was his first transfer. Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung mentioned the choice was made to alleviate navy rigidity and restore belief between the 2 Koreas.

Lee's North Korea coverage is a marked shift from his predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol, who emphasised "peace by power."

As North Korea minimize off inter-Korean communication and made navy developments, Yoon responded with tit-for-tat measures. Throughout his time in workplace, each Koreas revoked the 2019 navy pact that banned tension-raising actions within the border area, together with loudspeaker broadcasts.

The 2 Koreas have engaged in psychological warfare because the Nineteen Sixties, with weapons like big billboard screens, loudspeakers put in alongside the border, and airdropping propaganda leaflets.

However the confrontation notably escalated below the Yoon administration.

After South Korea's Constitutional Courtroom dominated in 2023 that the regulation criminalizing leafleting excessively limits freedom of expression, the federal government gave defector teams a free hand to ship balloons and plastic bottles throughout the border carrying leaflets and thumb drives with South Korean TV dramas.

The North Korean regime, which is more and more closing off its society from outdoors info, retaliated by sending its personal balloons towards the South, carrying largely trash, starting in Might final 12 months.

Seoul then resumed its loudspeaker campaigns, and Pyongyang quickly adopted.

However in contrast to the earlier North Korean broadcasts that slandered South Korean leaders and glorified its personal leaders, this time North Korea was simply blasting noise, and it got here at random occasions.

"Typically they hold it on for twenty-four hours. And generally they're quiet for 2 straight days. That makes it extra nerve-racking," says Dangsan-ri's village chief, Ahn Hyo-cheol.

NPR visited the village whereas the loudspeaker broadcasts have been nonetheless underway.

<source srcset="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5385x5385+1347+0/resize/100/quality/85/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F34%2Fe3%2F9ee3bc6e4536951f8c300552a836%2Fgettyimages-2217645975.jpg" data-original="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5385x5385+1347+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F34%2Fe3%2F9ee3bc6e4536951f8c300552a836%2Fgettyimages-2217645975.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5385x5385+1347+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F34%2Fe3%2F9ee3bc6e4536951f8c300552a836%2Fgettyimages-2217645975.jpg" data-format="webp" class="img lazyOnLoad" type="image/webp"/><source srcset="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5385x5385+1347+0/resize/100/quality/85/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F34%2Fe3%2F9ee3bc6e4536951f8c300552a836%2Fgettyimages-2217645975.jpg" data-original="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5385x5385+1347+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F34%2Fe3%2F9ee3bc6e4536951f8c300552a836%2Fgettyimages-2217645975.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5385x5385+1347+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F34%2Fe3%2F9ee3bc6e4536951f8c300552a836%2Fgettyimages-2217645975.jpg" data-format="jpeg" class="img lazyOnLoad" type="image/jpeg"/><img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5385x5385+1347+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F34%2Fe3%2F9ee3bc6e4536951f8c300552a836%2Fgettyimages-2217645975.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5385x5385+1347+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F34%2Fe3%2F9ee3bc6e4536951f8c300552a836%2Fgettyimages-2217645975.jpg" data-format="jpeg" class="img lazyOnLoad" alt="Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate for South Korea's Democratic Party, gestures onstage during his final election campaign event ahead of the upcoming June 3 presidential election in Seoul on June 2, 2025. (Photo by ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP) (Photo by ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)" loading="lazy"/> Ahn has lived within the city all his life and was accustomed to North Korean propaganda. However he says the noises harassed him out a lot that his eyesight was affected.

In a pattern survey by the native public well being clinic, he says, 100% of the surveyed residents mentioned they're sleep disadvantaged. In keeping with Ahn, the noise was at occasions as loud as 95 decibels, which has similarities to the noise of a subway practice approaching a station .

"We're all simply farmers. They should not be blasting the sound towards this village," Ahn says.

However some argue that the broadcasts South Koreans have been blasting in direction of North Korea have been truly appreciated on the opposite aspect of the border.

Ahn Chan-il defected to the South within the Nineteen Seventies whereas serving at a border unit of the North Korean navy. He heard South Korea boasting in its broadcast in regards to the variety of automobiles it makes and the variety of fridges and televisions its folks have. And he may see from the guard publish he was manning the helicopters and autos transferring on the opposite aspect.

North Korea, as soon as forward of its southern rival, was starting to lag behind. Ahn's unit was getting much less meat and fish of their meals.

"As a result of I may verify with my very own eyes, I used to be extra assured that North Korea would not be a match," says Ahn, who's now a scholar and activist main the Seoul-based suppose tank World Institute for North Korea Research.

He says North Korea blared noises as an alternative of propaganda as a result of the nation is aware of its messages are ineffective in persuading South Koreans. And that North Korea promptly responded to the South's conciliatory gesture, he says, to avoid wasting scarce electrical energy.

"However it might be careless to suppose that Kim Jong Un could be open to holding an inter-Korean summit or reopening the joint industrial complicated simply because the published stopped," says Ahn.

Up to now few years, the North Korean chief has ignored requires dialogue from South Korea and the US. He has as an alternative targeted on beginning and cementing a brand new alliance with Russia.