South Korea Detains Americans Trying to Send Food, Bibles to North Korea
South Korean police detained six Americans on Friday caught with over 1,000 bottles carrying rice, Bibles, and American money that they reportedly intended to send across the sea to North Korea.
The incident is the largest scale of its kind in years, since leftist former President Moon Jae-in began cracking down on missionary activities targeting the repressive communist state as part of its campaign to ingratiate Seoul with the rogue regime. While Moon’s successor, Yoon Suk-yeol, was a hardline conservative during his term, he did not lift many of the restrictions imposed on individuals seeking to send political leaflets, religious material, or humanitarian aid towards Pyongyang.
Yoon was recently impeached following an attempt to impose martial law in December and replaced this month by the winner of a special election, currently President Lee Jae-myung, another leftist who has promised to increase engagement attempts with the North.
According to the South’s Korea JoongAng Daily, the six Americans were found carrying over 1,300 plastic bottles filled with rice, Bibles, USB sticks featuring foreign media banned in North Korea, and American money and admitted to engaging in missionary work. Missionaries often use plastic bottles in this manner as they float and easily travel across the sea via currents into rural, impoverished areas of the North.
Authorities did not name the individuals in question, identifying them only as men “in their 20s to 50s” who had entered the country two to three months ago with American passports and did not speak fluent Korean. Authorities stated that they did not have and would not pursue an arrest warrant for the men, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, as the activities the men were engaging in did not rise to the level of public security threats meriting an arrest. South Korean maintains exceptionally positive relations with the United States and, following an especially volatile six months in which five presidents took helm of the country, its government is likely to consider aggressive law enforcement action against American missionaries needlessly aggravating of a delicate situation. (Read more from “South Korea Detains Americans Trying to Send Food, Bibles to North Korea” HERE)
