Loud, crackly noises that sounded like an ominous, giant gong being beaten again and again washed over this village on a recent night. On other nights, some residents described hearing wolves howling, metal grinding together or ghosts screaming as if out of a horror movie. Others said they heard the sound of incoming artillery, or even a furious monkey pounding on a broken piano.
Although they heard different sounds at different times, people in this South Korean village on the border with North Korea all call themselves victims of “noise bombing,” saying they find the relentless barrage exhausting.
“It is driving us crazy,” said An Mi-hee, 37. “You can’t sleep at night.”
Since July, North Korea has amped up loudspeakers along its border with South Korea for 10 to 24 hours a day, broadcasting eerie noises that have aggravated South Korean villagers like no past propaganda broadcasts from the North ever did. The offensive is one of the most bizarre — and unbearable — consequences of deteriorating inter-Korean relations that have sunk to their lowest level in years under the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and the South’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol.
For decades, the two Koreas — which never signed a peace treaty after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce — have swung between conciliatory tones and saber rattling. Under Mr. Kim, Pyongyang has veered toward a more hawkish stance over the past few years. It has shut off all dialogue with Seoul and Washington, doubled down on testing nuclear-capable missiles and has vowed to treat South Korea not as a partner for reunification, but as an enemy that the North must annex should war break out.
In the South, Mr. Yoon has also adopted a more confrontational approach since taking office in 2022. He has called for spreading the idea of freedom to the North to penetrate the information blackout Mr. Kim relies on to maintain his totalitarian rule. South Korea has also expanded joint military drills with the United States and Japan, which involved aircraft carriers, strategic bombers and stealth jets, to deter Mr. Kim.