A broadcast about South Korea that goes off all night...the crumbling border area of everyday life

[Anchor]
Since July, North Korea has started broadcasting to the South toward the border area.

Due to the loud and unpleasant sound of day and night, the residents of the border area are demanding countermeasures, saying that their daily lives have collapsed.

Let's find out more about it with Yoon Tae-in, a reporter from the Ministry of Social Affairs who covered this.

Hello.

I went directly to the border area of Ganghwado Island.

What was the sound of North Korea's broadcast to the South?

[Reporter]
Our reporters went to the border of Songhae-myeon, Ganghwa-do for two days and one night on the 30th and 31st of last month.

I actually heard animal calls, ghosts, and things like that here.

This is about 2km away from North Korea, and the testimonies of the residents and our reporters all felt indescribable discomfort and goosebumps when they listened to the South Korean broadcast in common.

I think it's better to play it for you than to explain it myself.

Let's listen to it.

[Anchor]
How often do you hear this? What's the reaction of the residents?

[Reporter]
Based on my first-hand experience for two days and one night, I was able to listen to the broadcast about 30 minutes after arriving at Songhae-myeon, Ganghwa-gun at around 5 p.m.

The broadcast to North Korea stopped for 30 minutes or an hour in the middle and continued again.

In this way, a strange sound reverberated throughout the night on the island, and by about nine o'clock in the morning, the sound of the machine turning was heard.

As a result, each resident I met complained of pain.

Let's listen to it.

[Lee Sun-young / Song Hae-myeon, Ganghwa-gun, Incheon: Sometimes I do it for about an hour and then do it again, but now I wake up in surprise because it suddenly sounds really loud without the public.]

[Lee Byung-ye / Hajum-myeon, Ganghwa-gun, Incheon: The number of dinners has decreased by more than 50%. In Ganghwa, if there is a country house or a villa, a lot of acquaintances come. Especially, the season is so good right now. They're not coming.]

[Anchor]
There are residents who have visited the National Assembly because of this problem when they are experiencing major disruptions in their daily lives?

[Reporter]
Yes, this is Ahn Mi-hee who lives in Songhae-myeon, Ganghwa-gun.

He is a native who has lived in Ganghwa Island for nearly 40 years.

Last month, during the parliamentary audit of the National Defense Committee, it became a hot topic when he knelt down and asked to stop broadcasting to South Korea.

The reason we went to Ganghwado Island was because we were curious about how loud the noise was and how much it would have fallen to our knees.

When I actually went and listened to it, I thought, "Oh, if I were living here, so would I."

Not only me, but the group who went to the scene together said that the sound of the South Korean broadcast still seems to be ringing in my ears.

Even when I heard the phone ring at home, I was surprised because I thought it was a South Korean broadcast.

[Anchor]
It is estimated that about 4,000 residents suffer from noise damage in Ganghwa-gun. What measures are the residents asking for?

[Reporter]
When the South Korean military resumed loudspeaker broadcasting to North Korea about garbage balloons sent by North Korea, North Korea began loudspeaker broadcasting to the South in July.

As such, the residents of the border hope that the conflict between the two Koreas with leaflets and garbage balloons will end as soon as possible.

First of all, our side says that some organizations should stop sending leaflets to North Korea.

Ahn Mi-hee, whom reporters met, also said that on the 4th of last month, when a group of North Korean defectors released USB containing rice and K-pop videos off Ganghwa Island, the noise of South Korean broadcasting became louder.

But there's also opposition.

The abductees' family group, which attempted to disperse leaflets to North Korea and temporarily postponed it in the face of opposition, also said that North Korea should stop spraying garbage balloons first.

Let's listen to it for ourselves.

[Choi Seong-ryong / Head of the family reunion of abductees: Stop making noise and stop making filth balloons to North Korea before you say anything to us. If North Korea stops making filth balloons and making noises, we will also stop making noise.]

[Ahn Soon-seop / Songhae-myeon, Ganghwa-gun, Incheon: If we stop distributing leaflets like this, North Korea won't do it either. [But only the residents here are suffering from the damage (by sending leaflets to North Korea).]

[Anchor]
At this level, I think local governments should also come up with measures or mediate, but is there anything you're talking about?

[Reporter]
The Incheon Metropolitan Government said it will provide stress measurements, mental health tests, and psychological counseling to residents of Ganghwa Island, and provide stress relievers and quarantine measures to prevent damage to livestock.

The residents we met wanted to return to their daily lives before the South Korean broadcast began rather than financial compensation.

This is because most of the residents do not come from outside, but have lived in their hometown for decades, so they do not want to leave their hometowns.

At the local government level, it seems necessary to think about fundamental solutions such as reducing noise rather than measures such as compensation.

I heard the stories of residents whose lives were ruined by North Korea's broadcasting of South Korea for more than four months.

There seems to be an urgent need for measures to reduce and stop noise at the government and local governments as well.

So far, I've been talking with Yoon Tae-in of the Ministry of Social Affairs. Thank you for talking today.