Americans arrested for North Korea outreach attempt

South Korean police on Friday detained six Americans for attempting to float 1,600 bottles containing miniature Bibles and other items to North Korea by sea. Police arrested the group on Gwanghwa Island near North Korea, before they could throw the bottles into the ocean, according to the Associated Press. The bottles also contained rice, $1 bills, and USB flash drives. Police didn’t say what files were on the USB thumb drives. The Americans face investigation for allegedly violating safety and disaster law, according to the news outlet.

North Korean defectors living in South Korea, as well as Christians and other groups, have regularly made similar outreach attempts. They often face penalties from South Korean authorities worried about maintaining the tenuous calm. The two countries remain technically in a state of war. South Korea’s Constitutional Court in 2023 struck down a law that criminalized and heavily fined the sending of anti-Pyongyang leaflets to North Korea.

What’s new in North Korea? The country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, on Tuesday opened the new Wonsan Beach Resort on North Korea’s east coast. The development opens to North Korean tourists in July, according to the Associated Press. Foreign citizens aren’t typically allowed to enter the country.

Dig deeper: Read Angela Lu Fulton’s feature story on activists who launched balloons into North Korea.