Wolves, creaks and ghosts. North Korea has a new way to upset the South: ominous noises

South Koreans cannot sleep with “sound bombardment” coming from the North. It’s not propaganda radio: it’s scary, unbearable noises.

“It’s driving us crazy,” he says An Mi-hee37, for (NYT). “You can’t sleep at night” in villages bordering North Korea, residents report.

“It’s a bombardment without projectiles,” says Mi-hee. While speaking to the NYT from his living room, the distant, gong-like noisescontinued outside, seeming to increase as the night progressed. “The worst part is we don’t know when this will end, if at all.”

“I wish they would just broadcast the old insults and propaganda songs“He gets exasperated An Seon-hoe67 years old, another inhabitant of the border region. “At least they were human sounds and we could bear them.”

Lately, however, the bet of the megaphones installed at the border at the behest of Kim Jong-un is different: instead of imposing propaganda, they terrorize the inhabitants with disturbing sounds, ranging from wolves howling or metal doors creaking and even noises that mimic ghosts and other haunting creatures.

Locals have difficulty describing these sounds, other than calling them “annoying” and “stressful.” Residents blame North Koreans for insomnia, headaches and even goat abortions, chickens laying fewer eggs and the sudden death of a pet dog.

North Korea’s weapon against South Korea: Deafening noise

Since July, North Korea has ramped up its use of loudspeakers along the border, blasting unsettling sounds for up to 24 hours daily, escalating tensions along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

— Clash Report (@clashreport)

The NYT speaks in a “neo-cold war” with the approach of North Korea to Russia, which increased the already very weakened relations between the two Koreas. In recent times, the South Koreans have sent balloons to the North with anti-regime propaganda, to which North Korea responds with a practice.

“North Korea knows that its propaganda no longer works with South Koreans,” he tells the NYT Kang Dong-wanan expert on North Korea from Dong-A University in the South. “The purpose of their loudspeakers is no longer to broadcast propaganda but to force South Korea to stop its own emissions and pamphlets.”

Now, villagers keep their windows closed to reduce noise. Some installed Styrofoam over the windows in an attempt to isolate sound. Children no longer play on outdoor trampolines because of the noise, the newspaper says.

“The government abandoned us because we are few and, most of them, elderly”, he says Park Hae-sook75 years old, resident of a border village. “I can’t imagine the government not doing anything if Seoul suffered the same sound attack as us.”