Americans detained trying to send rice, Bibles, dollar bills to North Korea
South Korean authorities have detained six United States citizens who were attempting to send an estimated 1,300 plastic bottles filled with rice, US dollar bills and Bibles to North Korea by sea, according to news reports.
The US suspects were apprehended in the early hours of Friday morning after they were caught trying to release the bottles into the sea from Gwanghwa island, near a restricted front-line border area with North Korea, South Korea's official Yonhap news agency reports.
The six were taken into custody after a coastal military unit guarding the area reported them to the police. The area in question is restricted to the public after being designated a danger zone in November due to its proximity to the north.
Activists floating plastic bottles or flying balloons across South Korea's border with the north have long caused tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
An administrative order banning the launch of anti-Pyongyang propaganda towards the north is already in effect for the area, according to Yonhap.
On June 14, police detained an activist for allegedly flying balloons towards North Korea from Gwanghwa Island.
Two South Korean police officers confirmed the detentions of the six with The Associated Press news agency but gave no further details.
In 2023, South Korea's Constitutional Court struck down a 2020 law that criminalised the sending of leaflets and other items to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech.
But since taking office in early June, the new liberal government of President Lee Jae-myung is pushing to crack down on such civilian campaigns with other safety-related laws to avoid a flare-up in tensions with North Korea and promote the safety of front-line South Korean residents.
Lee took office with a promise to restart long-dormant talks with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. His government has halted front-line anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts, and similar North Korean broadcasts have not been heard in South Korean front-line towns since then.
It remains unclear if North Korea will respond to Lee's conciliatory gesture after it pledged last year to sever relations with South Korea and abandon the goal of peaceful Korean reunification.
Official talks between the Koreas have been stalled since 2019, when the US-led diplomacy on North Korean denuclearisation derailed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
9 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Is ‘Alligator Alcatraz' detention centre funded by Florida hurricane money?
Florida and federal officials announced the state will build a new immigration detention facility dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz' in the Everglades – an area of wetlands in the south of the state. Because the facility will be partly funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), some Floridians are worried it will affect hurricane relief funds. Homeland Security's Secretary Kristi Noem 'is using FEMA funds to build her Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp in Florida. At the beginning of hurricane season', reads a June 23 X post, 'when we can't pay our bills or fund meals for kids and the elderly.' Another June 23 X post reads: 'Florida's building 'Alligator Alcatraz' by diverting FEMA shelter funds meant for housing and aid. They're not protecting anyone, they're stealing emergency relief money to build detention centers in a swamp. Cruelty is always the point.' These claims come after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted a more-active-than-normal 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. The claims also follow President Donald Trump saying he wants to eliminate FEMA and have states handle preparation and response to hurricanes and other disasters. NPR reported that FEMA appears less ready to respond to disasters under Trump because of a management shake-up, employee departures and the cancellation of a programme that helped with disaster relief. The 'Alligator Alcatraz' facility gets its nickname from Alcatraz, the former maximum-security prison island in San Francisco Bay known for its isolation, security and minimal inmate privileges. The 'Alligator' part is because the 39-square-mile facility will be located remotely in the Everglades, a swampy region surrounded by alligators and pythons, where 'there's nowhere to go, nowhere to hide', according to a June 19 video posted by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. The facility would be six miles north of Everglades National Park. Governor Ron DeSantis's office told PolitiFact the facility will use temporary buildings and shelters similar to those used during natural disasters. The location will be the abandoned Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, which has an existing airstrip. The state will use the site under the governor's emergency powers. The Department of Homeland Security posted on June 23 on X that the facility is among its efforts to 'deliver on the American people's mandate for mass deportations. Alligator Alcatraz will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.' The government will allocate some FEMA funds to the facility, but it will not use disaster relief funds. The Florida Division of Emergency Management will build the facility for people arrested by Florida law enforcement for immigration law offences. A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) programme delegates to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specific immigration functions. Immigrants arrested in other states could also be transferred to the facility under Florida's custody. How FEMA will fund 'Alligator Alcatraz' A Noem spokesperson told PolitiFact on June 24 that the new Florida immigration detention facility will largely be funded by FEMA's Shelter and Services Program. Information about that programme is no longer available on FEMA's website, but a DHS spokesperson told us that FEMA has roughly $625m in that programme's funds that can be allocated to build the 'Alligator Alcatraz' facility. The DHS spokesperson also said that Florida will initially pay for the facility, and then will submit a reimbursement request to FEMA and DHS. DHS said the facility's total cost will be approximately $450m for one year. It is expected to open 30 to 60 days after construction, which started on June 23, according to The New York Times. It will open with 500 to 1,000 beds and is expected to have 5,000 beds by early July. Congress approved FEMA's Shelter and Services Program in fiscal year 2023 to give money to state and local governments and nonprofit organisations that provide migrants with temporary shelter, food and transportation. The programme uses money Congress gave Customs and Border Protection, and is administered by FEMA. Before then, including during the Trump administration, migrants received help through another FEMA programme, the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which is for people facing homelessness and hunger. FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, which is primarily used after natural disasters, is funded separately by Congress. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump falsely claimed the Biden administration was stealing millions from FEMA's disaster aid fund to help migrants. The Shelter and Services Program funding does not come at disaster victims' expense. PolitiFact previously reported that in fiscal year 2024, which started in October 2023 and ended in September 2024, Congress directed US Customs and Border Protection to give FEMA $650m for the Shelter and Services Program. From fiscal years 2021 to 2024, Congress allocated about $1.5bn combined for both the Shelter and Services Program and the Emergency Food and Shelter program. The Trump administration stopped funding for the Emergency Food and Shelter program. 'Alligator Alcatraz' is just one of the ways Florida is planning to detain, process and deport immigrants illegally in the US. Earlier this year, Florida offered to build immigration detention sites. The state's 'Immigration Enforcement Operations Plan' says it identified several locations in the northeastern and south-central regions of the state that could serve as detention centres. The report said that to make the detention and deportation process 'seamless', the locations 'are typically' near airstrips. DeSantis said during a June 25 press conference that Camp Blanding Joint Training Center, a training base for the Florida National Guard, soon will be formally announced as an immigration detention facility.
Al Jazeera
12 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Americans detained trying to send rice, Bibles, dollar bills to North Korea
South Korean authorities have detained six United States citizens who were attempting to send an estimated 1,300 plastic bottles filled with rice, US dollar bills and Bibles to North Korea by sea, according to news reports. The US suspects were apprehended in the early hours of Friday morning after they were caught trying to release the bottles into the sea from Gwanghwa island, near a restricted front-line border area with North Korea, South Korea's official Yonhap news agency reports. The six were taken into custody after a coastal military unit guarding the area reported them to the police. The area in question is restricted to the public after being designated a danger zone in November due to its proximity to the north. Activists floating plastic bottles or flying balloons across South Korea's border with the north have long caused tensions on the Korean Peninsula. An administrative order banning the launch of anti-Pyongyang propaganda towards the north is already in effect for the area, according to Yonhap. On June 14, police detained an activist for allegedly flying balloons towards North Korea from Gwanghwa Island. Two South Korean police officers confirmed the detentions of the six with The Associated Press news agency but gave no further details. In 2023, South Korea's Constitutional Court struck down a 2020 law that criminalised the sending of leaflets and other items to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech. But since taking office in early June, the new liberal government of President Lee Jae-myung is pushing to crack down on such civilian campaigns with other safety-related laws to avoid a flare-up in tensions with North Korea and promote the safety of front-line South Korean residents. Lee took office with a promise to restart long-dormant talks with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. His government has halted front-line anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts, and similar North Korean broadcasts have not been heard in South Korean front-line towns since then. It remains unclear if North Korea will respond to Lee's conciliatory gesture after it pledged last year to sever relations with South Korea and abandon the goal of peaceful Korean reunification. Official talks between the Koreas have been stalled since 2019, when the US-led diplomacy on North Korean denuclearisation derailed.
Al Jazeera
15 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,219
Here is how things stand on Friday, June 27: Fighting Russian air strikes killed one person and wounded two others in Ukraine's southern region of Kherson, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram. Russian troops have taken control of the village of Shevchenko in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, which is close to a lithium deposit, after fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces, a Russian-backed official in the occupied region said. Russian troops also took control of the settlement of Novoserhiivka also in Donetsk, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence. Ukraine's forces stopped Russian advances in the border area of Ukraine's northern region of Sumy this week, the country's top general, Oleksandr Syrskii, said in a statement. Syrskii has also ordered defensive lines to be built more quickly in the Sumy region, as Russian forces gain ground towards the industrial Dnipropetrovsk region. Military North Korea will send more troops to Russia to assist in its war against Ukraine, possibly as early as July, a South Korean lawmaker said, citing information from Seoul's spy agency. Politics and diplomacy Ukraine and Russia exchanged a new group of captured soldiers, the latest in a series of prisoner swaps agreed at peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month. Neither side said how many prisoners were released, but they had pledged to swap at least 1,000 soldiers each during their direct meeting in Istanbul on June 2. Russia said there was no progress yet towards setting a date for the next round of peace talks with Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported. Another state news agency, TASS, quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Russia was in favour of continued United States efforts to mediate talks. The European Union's 27 leaders have agreed to extend sanctions on Russia for another six months, resolving fears that Kremlin-friendly Hungary would let the measures lapse, officials said. The sanctions include the continued freezing of more than $234bn in Russian central bank assets until at least early 2026. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the European Council to send 'a clear political message' that Brussels backs Kyiv in its effort to join the EU. Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that a state-organised consultation gave him a 'strong mandate' to oppose neighbouring Ukraine's EU accession at the EU summit in Brussels. The international chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said that it had found a banned tear gas in seven samples submitted by Ukraine, which has accused Russia of using the riot control agent on the front line. It was the third time the OPCW confirmed the use of CS gas in areas where fighting is taking place in Ukraine. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said a new arms race could lead to the fall of Russian President Vladimir Putin's 'regime', just like it toppled the Soviet Union. Press freedom A Russian court said it had found a photographer, Grigory Skvortsov, guilty of treason and jailed him for 16 years after he allegedly admitted passing detailed information about once-secret Soviet-era bunkers to a US journalist. Moscow will summon the German ambassador soon to inform him of retaliatory measures in response to what it sees as the harassment of Russian journalists based in Germany, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
