South Korean police say six Americans were arrested on South Korea’s Ganghwa Island on Friday as they tried to launch 1,600 plastic bottles containing rice, $1 bills, miniature Bibles, and USB sticks “so they could float toward North Korean shores on the tides,” reported the Associated Press. The group is being probed for breaking South Korea’s Safety and Disaster Management Act. Officers—speaking anonymously to AP—refused to name the detainees or reveal the contents of the USB sticks. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul has offered no comment. Bottle- and balloon-based “information drops” have long been favored by activists eager to smuggle K-dramas, K-pop and anti-regime leaflets into the communist North. A 2021-23 ban was struck down last year, but new liberal President Lee Jae Myung is using other safety laws to keep the practice in check while he pursues talks with Pyongyang. Just two weeks ago, an activist on the same island was detained for launching a balloon, AP reported. North Korea usually answers such stunts with trash-filled balloons and fiery threats—leaving Seoul nervously weighing free-speech rights against the risk of another peninsula flare-up.
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