Six American citizens were arrested yesterday, Friday, in South Korea when they were trying to launch into the sea over a thousand plastic bottles containing rice, one-dollar bills, and Bibles, in an apparent attempt to reach North Korea.
PUBLICIDAD
The events took place on Ganghwa Island, about 50 kilometers west of Seoul, in a restricted coastal area where public access has been prohibited since November for security reasons.
PUBLICIDAD
The police said they received an alert from a military unit monitoring the area and that the suspects are between 20 and 50 years old, as reported by the local news agency Yonhap.
The Americans, who had prepared around 1,300 bottles with food and religious texts, are facing possible charges for violating the South Korean law on disaster management and safety.
The police reported that they subsequently released them because they considered that the situation did not warrant an arrest warrant; however, the goal is to continue the investigation without physical custody.
Americans are not affiliated with any civic or religious organization registered in the city of Incheon, and now investigations are seeking to determine if they have links with groups inside or outside the country.
The sending of bottles or balloons to North Korea with this type of content or pamphlets against the Pyongyang regime has been a common practice of some organizations of North Korean defectors in South Korea. These actions have generated repeated tensions with the North Korean regime, which considers them a violation of its sovereignty.
The new South Korean president, Lee Jae-myung, has promised to take measures to prevent these launches and punish those responsible, as part of his efforts to improve inter-Korean relations.