For the 2,000 people who call Yeonpyeong Island home, it can sometimes feel like they live at the mercy of the North Korean Kim family's whims.
A contested border known as the northern line limit (NLL) means that Yeonpyeong is effectively 11 kilometres from Kim Jong Un's territory.
They can just see North Korea on the horizon, and they know if tensions reached boiling point, the bombs would hit them first.
That proximity has proved deadly before.
In 2010, North Korea's then leader Kim Jong Il, who was in poor health and a year from death, was in the process of ensuring his son Kim Jong Un was well placed to succeed him.
On that day, the large military presence on Yeonpyeong had been testing some of their weapons.
South Korea said it was a routine exercise they had carried out many times before.
But this time, North Korea reacted.
During two distinct stages of attack, it fired about 170 artillery shells and rockets. Four people died, including two civilians.
Island resident Kim Bu-seop remembers the day vividly.
"It was so sudden, it didn't feel real," she said.
"A bomb fell just before me, right in front of my feet as I tried to go home. I froze. I couldn't get my feet to move further.
It is still unclear exactly what caused the North Koreans to attack, according to Jenny Town, an analyst with foreign policy think tank the Stimson Centre.
"It was a very different time," she said.
"Some of it could have been related to building up Kim Jong Un's bona fides."
Now, nearly a decade into Kim Jong Un's rule, his grip on power has never appeared more tenuous.
And his rival leader in the south is running out of time to achieve a tentative peace that could change everything for Yeonpyeong Island.
Kim asked for liquor and new suits
The trouble for the Korean peninsula is that Mr Kim doesn't want to talk right now.
Just over a week after hotlines between the two Koreas were restored, the calls from Seoul went unanswered.
For a brief moment, it had appeared that relations on the Korean peninsula were set to improve.
Mr Kim was reportedly willing to return to denuclearisation talks with Seoul and the US — but only if they eased sanctions on fuel, and sent some top shelf liquor and fresh designer suits first.
But then Seoul decided to go ahead with joint US military drills, and Pyongyang stopped picking up the phone.
Every year, the 28,500 US soldiers stationed on the peninsula hold exercises with the South.
With the pandemic still in full swing, this year they are expected to be mostly virtual.
But even that is too much for North Korea.
Two men grapple with the limits of their power
On both sides of the demilitarized zone, power dynamics appear to be shifting.
Mr Kim's younger sister has played an increasingly visible and aggressive role, leading the public lashings of South Korea.
"The dangerous war practice of South Korea and the US that ignores our repeated warnings will bring even more dire security threats to the two countries," Kim Yo Jong said of the impending military exercises.
With his children too young to succeed him, and speculation swirling about his health, Mr Kim's sister has emerged as a prominent player in the north's regime.
"Kim Yo Jong has gained prominence in the past few years," said June Park from George Washington University's East Asian Resource Centre.
"It's very clear that Kim Jong Un and Kim Yo Jong have, as siblings, an exchange going on in terms of how to communicate with the South Koreans.
"But what's not clear is what kind of a leverage that she has, in terms of dictating where the policy direction should be."
Despite recently losing weight and a mysterious new scar appearing on the back of his head, Kim Jong Un is still likely in charge.
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But North Korea appears to be in dire straits, with Mr Kim repeatedly expressing concern about the nation's economy and food shortages.
That may have prompted him to start exchanging letters with South Korea's President Moon Jae-in from April.
And Mr Moon also has a lot on the line.
Time is running out for Moon Jae-in's promise
He came to power promising closer relations with the north, but in the final year of his term, Moon Jae-in has little to show for it.
As contenders jockey for his job, Ms Park said games are being played by Pyongyang.
"Each time there is a presidential election, things get politicised," she said.
"On both sides, there is a scheme to utilise the political atmosphere in order to gain leverage."
Even as Mr Moon talks of his lofty aspirations for peace, he also appears to be buying the nation an insurance policy.
South Korea is pouring billions of dollars into a rocket defence system modelled on Israel's iron dome.
If it works, it will provide what feels like an invisible shield of protection, shooting down any projectiles fired from the north.
With tensions once again peaking, there could be a major escalation on the cards, including a missile test.
"It could be another [intercontinental ballistic missile] launch, we don't know," said June Park.
"We're not really sure what kind of military tactic they will use."
The new system wouldn't be ready until 2035.
For the people on the furthest edge of South Korean land, it can't come soon enough.
The island on the edge of war
More than a decade after the assault on Yeonpyeong, the scars are still visible.
Bombed-out buildings from that attack have been reconfigured as a museum, and Yeonpyeong has become a tourist attraction.
Visitors from the rest of the country come to look at the evidence of bombing and peer through binoculars at the North Korean ships on the horizon.
It feels safe. But there is always a shimmer of danger.
There are soldiers everywhere, barbed wire surrounds beaches, and shelters dot the island so residents have somewhere to flee if the missiles start to fall again.
And for the residents of the island, even doing their jobs could inadvertently trigger a conflict.
Local fisherman Park Tae-won craves access to seafood-rich waters to the north of the island.
"It would be a dream to be able to fish there," he said.
"There is something called a security zone in the South Korean part that North Korea claims, and that zone is a golden fishing ground. But neither North Korea nor South Korea can go there."
Despite President Moon's manoeuvres, Mr Park does not believe peace is on the horizon.
"It is impossible for the North and South to achieve perfect peace," he said.
The best the peninsula came hope for, he said, is "coexistence".
Fellow resident Kim Bu-seop also feels pessimistic about the chance of peace.
"It would be nice if things went well," she said.