PAJU, South Korea: When North Korea last year sent thousands of balloons filled with trash across the border to South Korea, the action sparked emergency calls and round-the-clock media policy in its neighbor.
For people living close to the heavily fortified border, the incident was just the latest in a worrying increase in conflicts between the Koreas, despite the likelihood that numerous South Koreans did not stay for very long on it.
Yoon Seol- hee, the owner of a hotel and a journey company in the boundary town of Paju, urged all South Koreans to paid attention and contribute more to easing the situation, saying” some people consider it a problem for someone else’s neighbourhood.”
As the South resumed military operations along the boundary line in response to the kites, resistance has grown. Seoul has never ruled out the use of headphones to broadcast advertising along the North’s border.
Local and foreign tourists who want to visit the secluded North are well-known in the border area, but Yoon claimed that the increase in tensions had hurt his company in Paju, which is located about 35 kilometers northwest of Seoul.
No Hyun- ki, 60, another Paju citizen, is even worried about the latest tit- for- scar retaliation between the Koreas.
” Therefore there’s no option… but to have a sense of dread that North Korea’s artillery may sail towards this spot”, said No, describing Paju as” the grimmest area”.