For South Koreans living near the border with North Korea in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, division has been part of their daily routine, from the barbed-wire fences running along the Imjin River to the roar of loudspeakers broadcasting propaganda back and forth across the border. For these people, the Panmunjeom Declaration that there would be no more war on the Korean Peninsula was bound to be of particular significance.
On May 1, four days after the inter-Korean summit, the removal of the propaganda loudspeakers marked the first concrete change in the daily lives of these people who thought their surroundings would never change. Children at the elementary school in the village of Daeseong-dong (also known as Freedom Village) in the Gunnae Township of Paju (the only school inside the demilitarized zone, or DMZ) no longer have to grimace when they hear the propaganda broadcasts.
This school, which is attended by the flower girl who handed a bouquet to South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un before their summit, is just 1km from Panmunjeom and 400m from the military demarcation line.
“About two days before the summit, the constant propaganda broadcasts grew less frequent, and now I hear they’re going to remove the loudspeakers. I think the children and I should be able to relax when we have class outside now,” said a 42-year-old teacher at the school surnamed Lee.
On the afternoon of May 1, the South Korean government removed more than 40 loudspeakers as the first follow-up measure to the Panmunjeom Declaration.
Heo Sim, a 53-year-old resident of Paju’s Unjeong 2 neighborhood, gathered around 30 neighbors to hold an “ansim party” on the evening of Apr. 27. The little party started with a “dad joke” from Heo playing on the double meaning of the Korean word “ansim,” which can either mean “peace of mind” or “beef tenderloin.” Now that residents could live with peace of mind thanks to the summit, he decided the best thing to do was to hold a party and enjoy some tenderloin.
“To get the mood going, I bought 4 kilos of tenderloin and cooked it for everyone. Everyone enjoyed it, though I don’t know if that was the summit or the fact that they got to eat expensive beef,” he laughed.
Heo’s home in Paju is “close enough that we could have a catapult battle with the North if war breaks out,” he said. Mt. Songak in Kaesong, North Korea, is as clearly visible as Seoul’s Mt. Bukhan from Jayu Road, which he uses to go to work. For Heo, peace holds a particularly deep significance.
“Feels like unification might come any day now”