Checkpoints, curfews and barbed wire: Life in the village on North Korea's doorstep

Taesung village, South Korea (CNN)A triumphant anthem blares across the rice fields that surround this village, singing the praises of a regime most of the world abhors.

The 24/7 propaganda is so loud the houses need extra thick walls for insulation.

This is the noisy reality for the residents of Taesung, a small village on North Korea's doorstep.

Also known as "Freedom Village," it's the only South Korean settlement in the 160-mile long and 2.5 mile-wide demilitarized zone (DMZ) that divides North and South Korea.

At its closest, it's just over 500 yards from the North, giving it a ringside seat to the heightened military tensions, which flared last month after North Korea threatened to send four missiles close to the US territory of Guam and intensified this week after North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test.

Cho Young-sook, who runs the village restaurant, is one of just 197 South Koreans living in Taesung. She moved here 38 years ago when she married a local man -- the only way anyone is allowed to move into this unusual and tight-knit community.

She describes a village on edge.

"We... see this situation as quite negative. We lock our doors at night now which we didn't before," she said when CNN visited the village in August.

The propaganda war between the two Koreas isn't subtle. In addition to the broadcasts from the North, over the years each side has been engaged in a tat-for-tat over the size of their respective flagpoles. North Korea is currently in the lead with a pole of 165 meters -- one of the world's largest.

There is a village in the North Korean side of the DMZ, Kijong, where the flag pole is located. Residents say they sometimes see people moving about -- but they can't tell whether they are civilians or soldiers. South Korea also broadcasts its own propaganda toward the North -- but not from this village and not as loud

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net