GANGHWA-GUN, South Korea (AFP) — Gunshots, screams, eerie laughter: South Korea’s border island Ganghwa is being bombarded nightly with blood-curdling sounds, part of a new campaign by the nuclear-armed North that is driving residents to despair.

Before it started, 56-year-old Kim Yun-suk fell asleep to the hum of insects and woke to the chirping of birds. Now, she is kept awake every night by what sounds like the soundtrack of a low-budget horror movie at top volume.

“The peaceful sounds of nature... have now been drowned out,” Kim told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“All we hear is this noise.”

The noise campaign is the latest manifestation of steadily-declining ties between the two Koreas this year, which have also seen Pyongyang test ever more powerful missiles and bombard the South with trash-carrying balloons.

Since July, North Korea has been broadcasting the noises every day from loudspeakers along the border.

The northern point of Ganghwa — an island in the Han river estuary on the Yellow Sea — is about two kilometers from the North.