New president new hopes for calm at South Korean village near DMZ

Paju, South Korea – Their village is just a stone’s throw from North Korea. So whatever their political leanings, Tongilchon residents all want one thing: a South Korean president who does not stoke tensions with Pyongyang.

About 60km 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 to 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 to 1980s and the dovish left-wing pro-engagement leaders of the 1990s to 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 front runner, the Democratic Party’s Mr 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 160m high 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