Six US citizens arrested in South Korea for attempting to send rice, Bibles to North Korea

South Korean authorities arrested six American nationals early Friday for trying to send plastic bottles filled with rice, one-dollar bills, and Bibles into North Korea from the country’s western coast, police confirmed.

The group, all US citizens between their 20s and 50s, was intercepted while launching the bottles from Ganghwa Island, located just northwest of Seoul and one of the South’s closest points to North Korea. “We have arrested and are questioning six American nationals... on suspicion of violating the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety,” the lead investigator from Ganghwa Police Station in Incheon told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Americans reportedly did not speak Korean, so police provided interpreters during the ongoing interrogation process.

Ganghwa Island, sitting just 10km from North Korean waters, has long been used by activist groups and NGOs to float items like rice, USB drives containing South Korean dramas and K-pop, and religious materials toward the North. But the South Korean government designated the area a danger zone last November, warning that such acts could be seen as provocative by Pyongyang.

The arrests come amid recent efforts by South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, to dial down tensions with the North. Since taking office earlier this month, Lee has ended the use of loudspeaker broadcasts along the border, propaganda tactics that were reignited last year during a heated exchange between the two Koreas. In response to anti-North leaflets and media sent by balloon from the South, Pyongyang had launched thousands of trash-filled balloons into the South and broadcast eerie sounds across the border.

Read more: North Korea rains feces, trash on South Korea using balloons

Following Lee's decision to cease broadcasts, North Korea stopped its own psychological operations the next day, suggesting a fragile but active attempt to reduce hostilities.

While the arrested Americans' motives have not been formally disclosed, similar past incidents have involved Christian groups attempting to send humanitarian and religious materials into the North, where both are strictly forbidden. It remains unclear what legal consequences the six may face, but South Korean law has grown stricter in recent years concerning unauthorized cross-border activism, especially those deemed a risk to public safety or national security.