Concerns Mount Over Six Americans Detained in South Korea for Bible Launch
By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent
WASHINGTON/SEOUL/PYONGYANG (Worthy News) – Concerns are mounting over the fate of six Americans detained in South Korea for attempting to send 1,600 bottles filled with Bibles, rice, $1 bills, and USB drives toward North Korea by sea.
The group was caught some three weeks ago on Ganghwa Island, close to the North Korean border, and is under investigation for allegedly violating South Korea’s safety and disaster management laws.
The U.S. State Department said it was aware of the incident but declined to disclose the Americans’ identities or to provide further comment, citing privacy concerns.
Eric Foley, head of advocacy group Voice of the Martyrs Korea (VOMK), said the arrests stirred memories of his own legal troubles in 2020 for sending Bibles to the North via balloon. He stressed that while his group has no ties to those detained, the incident could lead to “increased scrutiny of Christian outreach” efforts to North Korea.
Christian groups fear the event might hamper long-standing initiatives to reach North Koreans with faith-based materials. “So many have paid a high price to get God’s word into North Korea,” an autocratically ruled nation, Foley said. “Uncoordinated actions risk jeopardizing that work.”
South Korea’s recently elected President Lee Myung is trying to reestablish dialogue with Pyongyang and has called for a halt to provocative acts” like leaflet drops and bottle launches.”
Yet organizations such as U.S.-based Defense Forum Foundation, which partners with North Korean defectors, say such efforts remain vital.
‘INTIMIDATING ACTIVISTS’
Its president, Suzanne Scholte, questioned the veracity of the arrest of the six Americans, suggesting it might be “a tactic” to intimidate activists.
Still, leaders like Jongho Kim of the Christian-oriented Northeast Asia Reconciliation Initiative caution that unauthorized actions could threaten fragile diplomatic efforts. “Even well-intentioned missions can harden the soil rather than prepare it for the Gospel,” he warned.
Despite border closures and growing restrictions, VOMK says it delivers thousands of Bibles annually to North Korea, often one or two at a time. Foley urged Christians to ask underground believers what kind of help they truly need in the communist nation, rather than acting independently.
“Patience and listening are key,” he added, “because the soil in North Korea is being prepared—even if we don’t always see the harvest yet.”
North Korea ranks first on the World Watch List of 50 nations where advocacy group Open Doors says Christians suffer most for their faith in Christ. At least up to 70,000 Christians are held in prison camps where they face torture and possible death, according to Christian rights investigators.
“If your Christian faith is discovered in North Korea, you could be killed on the spot. If you aren’t killed, you will be deported to a labour camp and treated as a political criminal,” Open Doors said. “You will be punished with years of hard labour that few survive. And it’s not only you who will be punished: North Korean authorities are likely to round up your extended family and punish them too, even if your family members aren’t Christians.”
“There is no church life in North Korea” beyond the propaganda churches in Pyongyang, the capital, Christians said. “It’s impossible to gather for worship or prayer, and even secret worship and prayer are at great risk. Official spies could inform on you if they have any indication that you are a Christian, and so could your neighbors or teachers,” Open Doors added.
400,000 CHRISTIANS
There are still some 400,000 Christians living among North Korea’s roughly 26 million people, many taking risks to worship God instead of hardline ruler Kim Jong Un, Worthy News learned.
“Recognizing any deity beyond the Kim family is considered a threat to the country’s leadership. ‘Anti-reactionary thought laws’ were enacted in December 2020. These made it even clearer that being a Christian or owning a Bible is a serious crime and will be severely punished,” Open Doors noticed.
“While a handful of churches exist for visitors in the capital, Pyongyang, these serve for propaganda purposes only and are no indication of religious freedom in the country,” the group explained.
Many are known to have been killed for reading Bibles or other information deemed dangerous by the Kim regime. “According to official reports, the authorities publicly executed about 30 middle-school students (early teenagers) for watching a Korean drama on a USB drive,” Open Doors recalled.
“Several teenagers (17 years old) were sentenced to life imprisonment or death for similar reasons in June and July 2024. A North Korean government official disclosed that several residents were sentenced to labour reform for picking up plastic bottles containing cooking rice sent from South Korea,” the group stressed.
“While President Kim Jong-un and his family live luxurious lives, the situation for most North Koreans is getting worse. They are suffering hunger and desperate need.”
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