South Korea police detain six Americans trying to send cash, rice to North Korea

27/6/2025 16:29

South Korean police have detained six U.S. citizens who were attempting to deliver around 1,300 plastic bottles filled with rice, dollar notes and Bibles to North Korea, a police official said on Friday.



The group had been trying to float the bottles by sea at a border island west of the capital Seoul near the isolated North before being spotted by a military patrol, the official at the Incheon Ganghwa Police Station told Reuters.



The six are suspected of violating the country's disasters and safety act through their actions in an area recently designated as a "risk zone" which prohibits activities deemed harmful to residents, the official said.



"We're investigating them through an interpreter and will decide after 48 hours whether to release them or not," the official said.



Since taking office earlier in June, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung pledged to improve relations with neighbouring North Korea after a spike in tensions between the neighbours.



Lee has suspended anti-North Korea loudspeaker broadcasts on the border and asked activists in the South launching helium balloons carrying leaflets criticising the authoritarian state's leaders to stop in a bid to prevent inflaming ties.