Six Americans were taken into custody Friday in South Korea after allegedly trying to send plastic bottles packed with rice, U.S. dollars, and Bibles toward North Korea by tossing them into the sea, police said.
Authorities said the group launched their effort from Gwanghwa Island, near the tense maritime border, aiming for the bottles to drift ashore in North Korea. A police official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the Americans are being investigated for potentially violating South Korea’s disaster and safety management laws.
A second police officer confirmed the detentions but provided no additional details, including whether any of the six had been involved in similar actions before.
For years, activists have sent plastic bottles or balloons over the heavily fortified border to deliver food, money, and anti-regime messages into North Korea. These campaigns have repeatedly fueled tensions between the two Koreas. In retaliation, North Korea has launched its own balloons filled with trash, including at least two that landed inside the presidential compound in Seoul last year.
South Korea’s Constitutional Court struck down a 2020 ban on sending such materials across the border, calling it an excessive infringement on free speech. However, the new liberal administration of President Lee Jae Myung, who took office in June, has vowed to crack down on cross-border civilian campaigns using other legal tools, citing safety risks to residents living near the frontier.
Just days before Friday’s detentions, police arrested another activist accused of launching balloons toward North Korea from the same island.
President Lee, who campaigned on pledges to revive dialogue with Pyongyang and reduce military tensions, suspended frontline anti-North Korea loudspeaker broadcasts shortly after taking office. Since then, North Korea has not resumed its own broadcasts into South Korea.
Still, it remains unclear if Lee’s gestures will lead to any thaw. North Korea declared last year that it would permanently sever ties with the South and abandon the idea of peaceful reunification. Official inter-Korean talks have been stalled since 2019, after the collapse of U.S.-led negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program.
