Americans detained trying to send rice, Bibles, dollar bills to North Korea

Six US nationals were taken into custody successful South Korea adjacent a restricted borderline country with North Korea.

South Korean authorities person detained six United States citizens who were attempting to nonstop an estimated 1,300 integrative bottles filled with rice, US dollar bills and Bibles to North Korea by sea, according to quality reports.

The US suspects were apprehended successful the aboriginal hours of Friday greeting aft they were caught trying to merchandise the bottles into the oversea from Gwanghwa island, adjacent a restricted front-line borderline country with North Korea, South Korea’s authoritative Yonhap quality bureau reports.

The six were taken into custody aft a coastal subject portion guarding the country reported them to the police. The country successful question is restricted to the nationalist aft being designated a information portion successful November owed to its proximity to the north.

Activists floating integrative bottles oregon flying balloons crossed South Korea’s borderline with the northbound person agelong caused tensions connected the Korean Peninsula.

An administrative bid banning the motorboat of anti-Pyongyang propaganda towards the northbound is already successful effect for the area, according to Yonhap.

On June 14, constabulary detained an activistic for allegedly flying balloons towards North Korea from Gwanghwa Island.

Two South Korean constabulary officers confirmed the detentions of the six with The Associated Press quality bureau but gave nary further details.

In 2023, South Korea’s Constitutional Court struck down a 2020 instrumentality that criminalised the sending of leaflets and different items to North Korea, calling it an excessive regularisation connected escaped speech.

But since taking bureau successful aboriginal June, the caller wide authorities of President Lee Jae-myung is pushing to ace down connected specified civilian campaigns with different safety-related laws to debar a flare-up successful tensions with North Korea and beforehand the information of front-line South Korean residents.

Lee took bureau with a committedness to restart long-dormant talks with North Korea and found bid connected the Korean Peninsula. His authorities has halted front-line anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts, and akin North Korean broadcasts person not been heard successful South Korean front-line towns since then.

It remains unclear if North Korea volition respond to Lee’s conciliatory motion aft it pledged past twelvemonth to sever relations with South Korea and wantonness the extremity of peaceful Korean reunification.

Official talks betwixt the Koreas person been stalled since 2019, erstwhile the US-led diplomacy connected North Korean denuclearisation derailed.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies