Gunshots, screams, eerie laughter: South Korea's border island Ganghwa is being bombarded nightly with blood-curdling sounds, part of a new campaign by the nuclear-armed North that is driving residents to despair. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year declared Seoul his "principal enemy" and has ramped up weapons testing and built closer military ties with Russia. The isolated and impoverished North is known to be extremely sensitive about its citizens gaining access to South Korean pop culture. In August, just weeks after South Korea resumed K-pop broadcasts in response to Pyongyang floating trash-carrying balloons south, a North Korean soldier defected by crossing the heavily fortified border on foot. Choi Hyoung-chan, a 60-year-old resident, said the South Korean government had failed to protect vulnerable civilians on the frontier.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 21, 2024 01:03 UTC