Six American citizens have been detained in South Korea near a restricted border area with North Korea.
South Korean authorities have detained six U.S. citizens who were trying to send an estimated 1,300 plastic bottles filled with US dollar bills, US dollar bills and the Bible to North Korea, according to news reports.
The US suspect was arrested early on Friday morning after attempting to release a bottle into the sea from Gwanga Island, near a restricted frontline border area with North Korea, South Korea’s official Yonghap news agency reports.
Six people were taken into custody after coastal forces guarding the area reported to police. The area in question is generally restricted after being designated as a dangerous zone in November because it is closer to the north.
Activists have long been causing flying balloons on the Korean Peninsula, crossing South Korea’s north borders to fly, with plastic bottles or flying balloons floating on them.
According to Yonghap, an executive order banning the launch of anti-Piyongyang propaganda towards the north is already in effect in the area.
On June 14, police detained an activist on suspicion of flying balloons from Gwanga Island towards North Korea.
Two South Korean police officers confirmed the custody of six of the Associated Press, but did not give further details.
In 2023, South Korea’s Constitutional Court broke the 2020 law, criminalising the dispatch of other items to North Korea, calling it an overly restriction on freedom of speech.
However, since taking office in early June, President Lee Jae-myeon’s new liberal government has pushed to crack down on such private campaigns with other safety-related laws to avoid flare-ups of tensions with North Korea and promote the safety of frontline South Korean residents.
Lee took office on the promise of resuming a long dormant meeting with North Korea and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula. His government has stopped broadcasting frontline anti-Piyongyang propaganda loudspeakers, and since then, no similar North Korean broadcasts have been heard in frontline towns in South Korea.
It remains unclear whether North Korea will respond to Lee’s gesture of reconciliation after its severing ties with South Korea last year and pledged to abandon its peaceful South Korea’s goal of unification.
Formal talks between South Korea have been stagnating since 2019, when US-led diplomacy over North Korea’s denuclearization derailed.
