By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
SEOUL (Worthy News) – Concerns remained Wednesday about likely more restrictions on groups trying to spread the Gospel in North Korea and support Christians there, after the arrest of six Americans in South Korea.
The six U.S. citizens were reportedly taken into police custody Friday after attempting to send 1,600 bottles filled with Bibles, USB data storage devices for computers, money, and rice by sea to North Korea.
They were detained on South Korea’s front-line Gwanghwa Island before throwing the bottles into the sea and floating them toward North Korean shores on the tides, according to local police.
Officials said the Americans are being investigated for allegations that they “violated the law” in managing safety and disasters.
Gwanghwa police explained that they hadn’t found what was on the USB sticks. The U.S. Embassy in South Korea had no immediate public comment.
For years, activists have sought to float plastic bottles or fly balloons across the border carrying Bibles as well as anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets and USB devices with South Korean dramas and South Korean-style K-pop songs.
The latest incident comes as South Korea’s new liberal government seeks to ease friction with Pyongyang and restart long-dormant talks, observers said.
VIOLATING RULES
Though well-meaning, the actions of the Americans “violated South Korean ordinances banning balloon and sea-based launches to the North,” ordinances aimed at reducing tensions, stressed Christians working in the region.
They added that the six detained Americans acted without consulting local organizations “experienced in such work.”
Eric Foley, who represents Christian advocacy group Voice of the Martyrs Korea (VOMK) explained that “One of the challenges that we see with people, groups doing work [trying to help those] inside North Korea is that they often don’t think about the Christians that are inside North Korea, to begin with.”
He also told broadcaster Mission Network News (MNN), adding that, “There are an estimated 30,000 North Koreans in prison for their faith” in Christ.
VOMK urged “global intercession” [prayers] for those suffering under North Korea’s hardline government and for South Korea as a nation both” before God and, likely, “before the government.”
Additionally, “Listen to the people who are in a country. Listen to how they tackle the problem, how they ask for partnership, how they believe that those things can best be done,” VOMK stressed.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has met victims’ families and survivors of Australia’s worst-ever terrorist and antisemitic attack that killed more than a dozen people, amid mounting tensions between the two nations.
Efforts to dismantle Hamas’ military infrastructure in Gaza are moving forward according to plan, despite tensions surrounding the ceasefire, a senior official involved in U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace initiative told Ynet in an exclusive report Wednesday.
As diplomatic talks continue between Washington and Tehran, new reports from inside Iran describe intensifying repression and widespread fear among ordinary citizens.
U.S. President Donald Trump met privately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for nearly three hours Wednesday, with both leaders confirming that negotiations with Iran remain ongoing but no final agreement has been reached.
The Pentagon has instructed a second aircraft carrier strike group to prepare for potential deployment to the Middle East as the United States increases military readiness in response to rising tensions with Iran, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Authorities in the U.S. state of Arizona detained a suspect Tuesday in connection with the reported abduction of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of American television host Savannah Guthrie, as the high-profile investigation entered its ninth day.
Nine people were killed Tuesday in a mass shooting in the western Canadian province of British Columbia, and at least 27 others were injured, authorities confirmed late Tuesday, marking one of the deadliest attacks in Canada in recent years.