San Francisco Frontiers - New president, new hopes for calm at South Korean village near DMZ

About 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Seoul, Tongilchon -- the name translates to "unification village" -- is one of a handful of settlements set up by the South Korean government in the 1970s.

The plan was for the villages to help the border areas recover from the devastation of the 1950-1953 Korean War, with the land allocated to former soldiers and people originally from the area but displaced by fighting.

Most residents are old. They have lived through the war, presidents from the hard-right military rulers of the 1970s-1980s and the dovish left-wing pro-engagement leaders of the 1990s-2000s.

When AFP visited the village of about 450 people days before South Korea was set to vote on June 3 for a new leader to replace disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol, the focus was on one thing.

"We live very close to the North, so we just hope relations improve and there's no war," 87-year-old Kwon Yeong-han told AFP.

The election could upend Seoul's policy towards the nuclear-armed North. The frontrunner, the Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung, is likely to take a much more conciliatory tone towards Pyongyang than hardliner Yoon.

- 'Ghost sounds' -

From the square in front of the polling station, a giant North Korean flag atop a 160-metre-high (520-foot) pole on the other side of the border is clearly visible.

When tensions between the two Koreas rise -- as they did under Yoon -- life for Tongilchon residents gets significantly more difficult.

Under Yoon, activists in the South once again started floating balloons carrying propaganda, dollar bills and USB sticks of K-pop and K-drama into the North.

It infuriated Pyongyang and triggered a tit-for-tat exchange, where the North floated balloons carrying trash southwards.

As ties deteriorated, both sides switched on the loudspeakers along the border.

Residents of Tongilchon now have to listen to terrifying sounds worthy of a horror movie soundtrack -- screams and moans, which Pyongyang broadcasts at any time of day or night.

"It's just noise, like ghost sounds," village chief Lee Wan-bae, 73, told AFP.

"It keeps us awake, it makes working in the fields difficult."

South Korea blasts K-pop and news bulletins into the North in response, but the loudspeaker noise from Pyongyang is so disturbing that border residents have pleaded with parliament to make it stop.

Tongilchon is located in the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ), a restricted area next to the more famous Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which separates the two Koreas.

The countries remain technically at war because the conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.

At the elementary school, which is flanked by air raid sirens, only six of the students live in the CCZ, the rest are bussed in daily.

"We make a lot of efforts to keep the school going, such as offering programmes that others don't have and free extracurricular activities after school and during vacations," said vice-principal Jong Jae-hwa.

When the CCZ is sealed off due to North Korean military activity and the school bus suspended, it falls to the teachers to drive children home.

Rising tensions also hit tourism, which is a key source of revenue for the village. It sells its agricultural products as "DMZ rice" or "DMZ ginseng".

"Life is hard here. No matter who is elected president, what we just want is to live peacefully," said the village chief Lee.

- 'Very suspicious' -

Long-term resident Min Tae-seung, 85, said that life in Tongilchon is already much easier than it used to be.

"In the first few years after we moved here there were military threats and North Korean infiltration," he said.

He's planning to vote for the conservative party's Kim Moon-soo, the candidate of Yoon's ex-party and a hardliner against Pyongyang.

According to Min, South Korea's "progressives are too lenient toward North Korea".

"The conservative camp does not take North Korea lightly -- they remain very suspicious."

But whoever the next president is, he said: "I don't think inter-Korean relations will improve quickly.

"Of course it would be ideal to reconcile and move freely, but that seems a long way off."

His 45-year-old daughter has a different view.

"Living here, the desire for reunification has naturally become a central concern for me," she said.

"Even if reunification is not possible, I really hope we could see travel between the two countries. I would love for my parents to see that day come."

M.Hill--SFF