Six American nationals were placed in police custody in South Korea near a restricted border area with North Korea.
The South Korean authorities have owned six American citizens who were trying to send around 1,300 plastic bottles filled with rice, US dollars and bible tickets in North Korea by sea, according to reports.
The American suspects were apprehended in the early hours of Friday morning after being surprised freeing the bottles in the sea from the island of Gwanghwa, near a restricted border area with North Korea, reports the official Yonhap news agency in South Korea.
The six were placed in police custody after a coastal military unit keeping the area reported to the police. The area in question is limited to the public after being appointed in November in November because of its proximity to the North.
Activists floating plastic bottles or flying balloons across the border of South Korea with the North have long caused tensions on the Korean peninsula.
According to Yonhap.
On June 14, police arrested an activist for allegedly stolen balloons to North Korea from Gwanghwa Island.
Two South Korean police officers confirmed the detention of the six with the Associated Press news agency, but did not give any other details.
In 2023, the Constitutional Court of South Korea canceled a law of 2020 which criminalized the sending of leaflets and other articles in North Korea, describing it as excessive restriction of freedom of expression.
But since its entry into office in early June, the new Liberal government of President Lee Jae-Myung has pushed these civil campaigns with other laws related to security in order to avoid a thrust of tensions with North Korea and to promote the safety of the South Corean residents of the front line.
Lee took office with a promise to restart long -term talks with North Korea and establish peace in the Korean peninsula. His government has interrupted first-line anti-Pyongyang propaganda speakers, and similar North Korean shows have not been heard in the South Korean leading cities since then.
It is not clear if North Korea will respond to Lee’s gesture of conciliation after promising last year to break relations with South Korea and abandon the objective of Pacific Korean reunification.
Official talks between Koreas have stalled since 2019, when diplomacy led by the United States on North Korean denuclearization has derailed.
