A police officer said the Americans tried to throw bottles into the sea from the frontline island of Gwanghwa so that they could drift toward the North Korean coast during the tide. They are being investigated for alleged violations of the law on safety and disaster management.
Another police officer revealed that the six suspects were being detained, but did not provide details, including whether any of them had previously committed the act.
The practice of activists releasing plastic bottles or balloons carrying anti-North Korean petitions across the border has long caused tension on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea responded to the balloon campaigns by launching garbage-carrying balloons back into South Korea, including at least two that landed at the presidential complex in Seoul last year.
In 2023, the Constitutional Court of South Korea rejected the 2020 law to criminally send leaflets and other items to North Korea, calling it an excessive limitation of freedom of speech.
But since taking office in early June, the new administration of President Lee Jae Myung has been pushing for the suppression of such civil campaigns with other safety-related laws to avoid escalating tensions with North Korea and saving South Korea's frontline residents.
President Lee Jae Myung took office with a promise to restart long-standing stalled negotiations with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula.
One of the notable moves was that President Lee Jae Myung's government stopped broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propagandals on the front lines in an effort to reduce military tensions. North Korean broadcasts have not been heard in frontline towns across South Korea since then.
However, it is still unclear whether North Korea will respond to Lee Jae Myung's mediation gestures after the country announced last year that it had cut off relations with South Korea and abandoned the goal of peaceful unification on the Korean peninsula.
Official talks between the two Koreas have stalled since 2019.
